Apholidotos ossna (or Apholidotus ossuosus Lund?) from the Carboniferous of Bear Gulch

Apholidotos ossna Lund (or Apholidotus ossuosus Lund?)

Lower Carboniferous

Heath Shale Formation

Bear Gulch

Montana

USA

length: 85mm or 3"

This fish belongs to the Tarrasiids, a group of extinct bony fish with elongated body and a diphycercal caudal fin that was continuous with the dorsal and anal fins. The continuous dorsal-caudal-anal fin is well webbed between the fin rays. Fish with this fin disposition today are slow weak swimmers that move either forward or backward, by body undulation, median fin undulation or pectoral paddling. Fish such as these are shelter dwellers in geometrically complex shallow water environments, such as weed or sponge beds.

No valid description seems to exist. For Apholidotos ossna Lund, the reference given is "in Frickhinger, 1991". Another name - Apholidotus ossuosus Lund - is used by UMPC (University of Montana Paleontology Center) in their catalog. In his own much later publications (e.g. in 1999), Lund himself in not using any of these combinations, he is only using the nickname "Garden Eel".