Coelogaster Explained

Coelogaster is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish that lived during the early Eocene. It contains a single species, C. leptostea, known from the famous Monte Bolca site of Italy.^{[1] [2]}

It is classified in the Anotophysi, and is generally considered a chanid of uncertain affinities, making it related to modern milkfish.^{[3] [4] [5]}

It was initially named without formal description by Louis Agassiz in 1835 as Clupea leptostea, alongside another fish known as Coelogaster analis. In 1905, Eastman officially described C. analis based on Agassiz's original name, and also described Clupea leptostea under the new genus Chanoides. A later revision found both these taxa to be synonymous, leading to the new combination Coelogaster leptostea.^[6]

White & Moy-Thomas (1940) suggested the genus name Eucoelogaster as a replacement, as the previous genus name Coelogaster was already preoccupied by a weevil genus, but most authorities have since kept Coelogaster as the genus name, with the weevil genus instead going by Dietzella.

Notes and References

1. 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 .
2. Web site: PBDB Taxon . 2024-05-25 . paleobiodb.org.
3. Carnevale . G. . Bannikov . Alexandre F. . Marramà . G. . Tyler . James C. . Zorzin. . R. . 2014 . The Bolca Fossil-Lagerstätte: A window into the Eocene World. 5. The Pesciara- Monte Postale Fossil-Lagerstätte: 2. Fishes and other vertebrates. Excursion guide . Rendiconti della Società Paleontologica Italiana . 4 . 1 . i–xxvii . 10088/25678.
4. Patterson . Colin . 1984 . Chanoides, a marine Eocene otophysan fish (Teleostei: Ostariophysi) . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . en . 4 . 3 . 430–456 . 10.1080/02724634.1984.10012021 . 0272-4634.
5. Murray . Alison M. . Brinkman . Donald B. . Friedman . Matt . Krause . David W. . 2023-10-17 . A large, freshwater chanid fish (Ostariophysi: Gonorynchiformes) from the Upper Cretaceous of Madagascar . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 10.1080/02724634.2023.2255630 . 0272-4634.
6. Marramà . Giuseppe . Carnevale . Giorgio . 2014 . Eocene round herring (Teleostei: Clupeidae) from Monte Bolca, Italy . Acta Palaeontologica Polonica . en . 10.4202/app.00057.2014 . 0567-7920. 2318/1525495 . free .