Chanopsis Explained

Chanopsis is an extinct genus of prehistoric freshwater bonytongue relative that lived from the late Aptian to the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch.^[1] It contains a single species, C. lombardi from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.^[2]

Chanopsis was a large fish known from both the late Aptian/early Albian Loia Formation and the overlying Albian Bokungu Formation. Initially described as a chanid (hence the genus name), later studies found it to be a osteoglossiform, most likely a stem-bonytongue.^[3] The exact placement of Chanopsis within the osteoglossoids remains uncertain as it lacks some of the key traits of the group, but as one of the earliest potential members of the osteoglossoid crown group, it would be crucial to understanding divergence estimates of the order.^[4]

See also

• Prehistoric fish
• List of prehistoric bony fish

Notes and References

1. Web site: PBDB Taxon . 2024-05-08 . paleobiodb.org.
2. Sepkoski . Jack . A compendium of fossil marine animal genera . Bulletins of American Paleontology . 364 . 560 . 2002 . 2009-02-27 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090220223520/http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class . 2009-02-20 .
3. Taverne . Louis . 2016-01-01 . Chanopsis lombardi (Teleostei, Osteoglossiformes) from the continental Lower Cretaceous of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Comments on the evolution of the caudal skeleton within osteoglossiform fishes . Geologica Belgica . en . 10.20341/gb.2016.015 . 1374-8505.
4. Paleontological Data Reveals Unexpected Biogeographic Histories of Extant Organisms: Bonytongue Fishes (Teleostei: Osteoglossomorpha) as a Case Study . 2021 . Thesis . en-US . Alessio . Capobianco.