Coccocephalus
| Coccocephalus Temporal range:
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| Family: | †Coccocephalichthyidae Fowler, 1951
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| Genus: | †Coccocephalus Watson 1925
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| Type species | |
| †Coccocephalus wildi Watson, 1925
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Coccocephalus is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish from the Carboniferous period. The type species, C. wildi, lived during the Bashkirian age of the Pennsylvanian epoch in what is now Lancashire, United Kingdom.[2]
Ecology & evolution[edit]
A specimen of C. wildi preserved fossilized brain and nerve tissue, which shows that the forebrain in this ray-finned fish was evaginated, a feature otherwise not known in actinopterygians. The results show that the everted forebrain of modern ray-fins evolved later than previously thought.[2]
Taxonomy[edit]
The type species was first described as Coccocephalus wildi in 1925 by David Meredith Seares Watson, but because Coccocephalus was thought to be preoccupied (for an extant hemipteran insect), both Gilbert Percy Whitley[3] and Errol White & James Alan Moy-Thomas[4] proposed a new genus name in 1940. Because the article introducing the name Coccocephalichthys Whitley, 1940 was published before the article erecting the name Cocconiscus White & Moy-Thomas, 1940, the former became the valid new genus name for the Carboniferous fish for some time. However, reexamination of Fieber's 1861 insect publication in 1996 revealed that the insect in question is Coccodocephalus, thus the original name Coccocephalus wildi stands as the correct name for this genus and both Coccocephalichthys and Cocconiscus are junior synonyms. [5]
- Family Coccocephalichthyidae Fowler, 1951 [Cocconiscidae Romer, 1945][6]
- Genus Coccocephalus Watson 1925 [Coccocephalichthys Whitley, 1940; Cocconiscus White & Moy-Thomas, 1940]
- C. baldwini (Poplin, 1974) [Coccocephalichthys baldwini (Poplin, 1974); Cocconiscus baldwini Poplin, 1974]
- C. tessellatus Beltan, 1981
- C. wildi Watson, 1925 [Coccocephalichthys wildi (Watson, 1925); Cocconiscus wildi (Watson, 1925)]
- Genus Coccocephalus Watson 1925 [Coccocephalichthys Whitley, 1940; Cocconiscus White & Moy-Thomas, 1940]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Palaeonisciformes". Paleobiology Database. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
- ^ a b Figueroa, Rodrigo T.; Goodvin, Danielle; Kolmann, Matthew A.; Coates, Michael I.; Caron, Abigail M.; Friedman, Matt; Giles, Sam (2023). "Exceptional fossil preservation and evolution of the ray-finned fish brain". Nature. 614 (7948): 486–491. Bibcode:2023Natur.614..486F. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05666-1. PMID 36725931. S2CID 249475791.
- ^ Whitley, Gilbert P. (1940). "The nomenclator zoologicus and some new fish names". Australian Naturalist. 10: 241–243..
- ^ White, Errol I.; Moy-Thomas, James A. (1940). "XLVIII.—Notes on the nomenclature of fossil fishes.—Part I. Homonyms A-C". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 11. 5 (30): 502–507. doi:10.1080/00222934008527067.
- ^ Poplin, Cécile M.; Véran, Monette (1996). "A revision of the actinopterygian fish Coccocephalus wildi from the Upper Carboniferous of Lancashire". Special Papers in Paleontology. 52: 7–29.
- ^ "Part 7- Vertebrates". Collection of genus-group names in a systematic arrangement. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
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