Tharsis (fish)
| Tharsis Temporal range:
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| Specimen of Tharsis dubius | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
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| Order: | †Ascalaboidiformes
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| Family: | †Ascalaboidae
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| Genus: | †Tharsis |
| Type species | |
| †Leptolepis dubius Blainville, 1818
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| Other species | |
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Tharsis is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish known from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone of Germany. The genus contains two species, T. dubius and T. elleri.[2]
Adult individuals reached about 27 centimetres (11 in) in length, with the jaws having minute teeth. They are thought to have been micro-carnivores/visual zooplanktivores, selectively feeding on small sized prey that was engulfed via suction. In 2025, Ebert and Kölbl-Ebert reported the discovery of specimens of Tharsis found with belemnites lodged in their mouth and gill apparatus, and interpreted them as sucking remnants of belemnite soft tissue of algal or bacterial overgrowth after accidentally sucking belemnites into their mouth, which likely resulted in suffocation.[3]
Tharsis belongs to the extinct family Ascalaboidae and order Ascalaboidiformes, which are closely related to modern teleosts but outside the crown group (the descendants of the last common ancestor of all living species).[2] Cladogram after Bean (2021).[4]
| Teleosteomorpha |
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References
- ^ Giebel, C. G.: Fauna der Vorwelt, mit steter Berücksichtigung der lebenden Tiere, Erster Band: Wirbelthiere, Dritte Abtheilung: Fische, Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1–467, 1848.
- ^ a b Arratia, Gloria; Schultze, Hans-Peter; Tischlinger, Helmut (2019-01-07). "On a remarkable new species of Tharsis, a Late Jurassic teleostean fish from southern Germany: its morphology and phylogenetic relationships". Fossil Record. 22 (1): 1–23. Bibcode:2019FossR..22....1A. doi:10.5194/fr-22-1-2019. ISSN 2193-0066.
- ^ Ebert, M.; Kölbl-Ebert, M. (2025). "Jurassic fish choking on floating belemnites". Scientific Reports. 15 (1). 16095. Bibcode:2025NatSR..1516095E. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-00163-7. PMC 12062261. PMID 40341734.
- ^ Bean, L. B. (2021). "Revision of the Mesozoic freshwater fish clade Archaeomaenidae". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 45 (2): 217–259. doi:10.1080/03115518.2021.1937700. S2CID 237518065.