Brachyichthys
| Brachyichthys Temporal range:
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|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Clade: | Halecomorphi |
| Order: | †Ionoscopiformes |
| Genus: | †Brachyichthys Winkler, 1862 |
| Type species | |
| †Brachyichthys typicus Winkler, 1862
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| Species | |
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Brachyichthys is an extinct genus of marine halecomorph ray-finned fish from the Late Jurassic of Europe.[1] It is alternatively placed in the Ionoscopiformes or the Ophiopsiformes.[2][3]
It contains two species:
- B. manselii (Egerton, 1872) - Kimmeridgian of England (Kimmeridge Clay) (=Semionotus manselii Egerton, 1872)[3]
- B. typicus Winkler, 1862 (type species) - Tithonian of Germany (Solnhofen Limestone)[4][5]
B. typicus is considered a very rare species within the Solnhofen Fauna, and is known only from a single disarticulated specimen. B. manselii was also previously known only from a partial specimen missing the head and much of the body, until the description of near-complete specimens in 2025, allowing for a much better understanding of the anatomy of the genus overall. Other Solnhofen fish previously assigned to Brachyichthys have been reassigned to new genera such as Elongofuro.[3][5]
In the past, Brachyichthys was synonymized with Heterolepidotus from the Early Jurassic of England. However, it is now recognized as its own distinct genus. It is still though to be closely related to Heterolepidotus.[3][6][7]
References
- ^ "†Brachyichthys Winkler 1861 (ray-finned fish)". The Paleobiology Database.
- ^ "Panxianichthys imparilis gen. et sp. nov., a new ionoscopiform (Halecomorphi) from the Middle Triassic of Guizhou, China". Vertebrata Palasiatica. 53 (1). 2015-03-15. ISSN 2096-9899. Archived from the original on 2025-12-29.
- ^ a b c d Ebert, Martin; Etches, Steve (2025-10-01). "New description of Brachyichthys manselii (Egerton, 1872) comb. nov. (Neopterygii: Halecomorphi) from the Upper Jurassic of Kimmeridge, England". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 205 (2). doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf119. ISSN 0024-4082.
- ^ Winkler, T. C. (1862). Description de quelques nouvelles espèces de poissons fossiles du calcaire lithographique de Solenhofen (in French). Société Hollandaise des Sciences.
- ^ a b Lambers, Paul H. (1999-06-01). "The actinopterygian fish fauna of the Late Kimmeridgian and Early Tithonian 'Plattenkalke' near Solnhofen (Bavaria, Germany): state of the art". Geologie en Mijnbouw. 78 (2): 215–229. doi:10.1023/A:1003855831015. ISSN 1573-9708.
- ^ Geology, British Museum (Natural History) Department of; Woodward, Arthur Smith (1895). Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History): Actinopterygian Teleostomi of the orders Chondrostei (concluded), Protospondyli, Aetheospondyli, and Isopondyli (in part). order of the Trustees.
- ^ Machado, Giselle Ribeiro de Paula (2015-03-03). Revisão de Ionoscopiformes (Actinopterygii: Neopterygii) e certos táxons fósseis basais de Halecomorphi: morfologia, taxonomia e relações filogenéticas (Thesis). Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Archived from the original on 2023-03-30.