Capros rhenanus WEILER, 1920

Taxonomy

Boarfish

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopteri Cope 1871
Order: Caproiformes
Family: Caproidae Lowe 1843
Genus: Capros
Species: Capros rhenanus
Author Citation WEILER, 1920

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Cenozoic
Period: Paleogene
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Oligocene
International Age: Rupelian

Stratigraphy

Menilite Formation

Provenance

Acquired by: Purchase/Trade

Dimensions

Length: 3 cm

Location

Równe near Krosno
Subcarpathian Voivodeship
Poland

• capros
• carpathians
• menilite shale
• oligocene
• tff-oilshale-ch784

Comments

This species belongs to a small family of marine ray-finned fishes, the Caproidea (Boarfish, Capros = boar from the Greek kapros). The family consists of about 12 species in two genera, all of them deep-sea types: Antigona and Capros (monotypic).

Caproidea are characterized by usually thin and deep, compressed, and oblong to disk-shaped bodies with 5 -10 soft rays and possibly a spine in the pelvic fins, 5 -10 dorsal fin spines and up to 4 anal fin spines. The upper jaw with minute, slender conical teeth is more or less protrusible. With their greatly compressed head and body, large mouth, and extremely protrusible upper jaw, the Zeiformes are successful ambush predators. They slowly approach an unsuspecting small fish by means of undulating waves of the transparent soft dorsal and anal fins. In one quick motion they drop the "trapdoor" lower jaw, shoot out the upper jaw, and expand the gill cavity, sucking in the hapless prey along with a considerable volume of water. Caproidea fishes are carnivores; they feed mainly on a variety of fishes but also consume cephalopods and crustaceans.

This fish here is a Capros rhenanus from the menilite shales of Rowne in the Polish Carpathians. All members of the genus Capros are characterized by a laterally compressed body that is as high as it is long. Fishes of this genus typically have three spines and five soft rays in the anal fin. The pectoral fins are rounded, the pelvic fins set below them (1 stout spine and 5 slightly softer finrays). The first dorsal fin consists of about nine to ten spikes, the second dorsal fin has 23 to 25 soft finrays. The large eye is well suited to its habitat in deep marine waters ranging from 40m to 600m. The protractile mouth, forming a small tube when protruded, is perfect for catching small copepods, mysids, benthic crustaceans and worms. The living species are all characterized by red coloration.

Capros rhenanus is the most commonly collected Oligocene species of caproid. In most cases, specimens of this species have been identified erroneously as Capros radobojanus, a Miocene species from Radoboj.

Capros aper, a recent Boarfish

 

References:

SWIDNICKI. J. (1986) OLIGOCENE ZEIFORMES (TELEOSTEI) FROM THE POLISH CARPATHIANS. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, Vol. 31, No. 1-2 pp. 111-135; pls. 47-50

Bannikov, A., Baciu, D.-S. und Tyler, J. (2005) REVISION OF THE FOSSIL FISHES OF THE FAMILY CAPROIDAE (ACANTOMORPHA) Miscellanea paleontologica N. 8, Studi e Richerche sui Giacimenti terziari di Bolca XI. p 7-74.