A new genus of cretaceous 'swordfish" comes with the reassignment of two Protosphyraena species

[Jared C]

A new genus of bill-fish like Plethodid Rhamphoichthys has been described from the Cretaceous of Lebanon and Germany. 

 

paper link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376263633_The_first_articulated_skeletons_of_enigmatic_Late_Cretaceous_billfish-like_actinopterygians

 

What's interesting is that the billfish like body plan here is AGAIN convergent - Rhamphoichthys is a Plethodid, unrelated to the more famous Creteaceous "billfish" Protosphyraena (a Pachycormid). Both of these are yet again unrelated to modern billfish (the Xiphiidae). In this paper, two previously dubious species of Protosphyraena have been assigned to this new genus: P. stebbingi and P. minor, now R. stebbingi and R. minor.

 

Pics! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 3 by Jared C