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DeutschHarpagofututor
| Harpagofututor Temporal range: Mississippian | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Life Restoration of a male (below) and female | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Subclass: | Holocephali |
| Order: | †Chondrenchelyiformes |
| Family: | †Chondrenchelyidae |
| Genus: | †Harpagofututor Lund, 1982 |
| Type species | |
| Harpagofututor volsellorhinus Lund, 1982 | |
Harpagofututor is an extinct genus of eel-like cartilaginous fish from the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian) Bear Gulch Limestone of Montana in North America.
Taxonomy
[edit]The fish was discovered in the 1980s in Montana's Bear Gulch area by Adelphi University palaeontologist Richard Lund, who has been exploring the limestone formations of the region since 1969.[1][2] There is only one recognised species Harpagofututor volsellorhinus described by Lund in 1982.[3] The genus is placed in the family Chondrenchelyidae, which are suggested to be members of Holocephali, with their closest living relatives being chimaeras.[3]
Description
[edit]Like the other only well known member of Chondrenchelyidae, Chondrenchelys, Harpagofututor had a long, elongate eel-like body (with known specimens ranging in length from 8.6 to 17 centimetres (3.4 to 6.7 in)) with a long upper medial fin running along the upper surface of the body without a fin spine. The skull tapered towards the front end, becoming very narrow near its apex. The mouth has pairs of tooth plates in the upper and lower jaws, comparable to those of living chimaeras, which were triangular in shape. The tooth plates when unworn have a ridged texture, with the ridges being separated by small knobs. The heads of males had unusual paired forked hollow structures growing from the top of the head, known as ethmoid or cephalic claspers, formed from 3 rods, one basal rod (which is partially calcified) attached to the skull to which two other rods (which were covered in denticles) articulated, with the structures apparently being able to rotate on a ball-and socket joint where they joined the skull. They are thought to have been used during mating. These structures, which are considerably longer than the skull itself, are apparently unique to Harpagofututor and not found in Chondrenchelys.[3][1]
Ecology
[edit]The tooth plates of Harpagofututor are thought to have been used to crush prey.[3] Harpagofututor is suggested to have given live birth, with newborn juveniles being proportionally large and morphologically nearly identical to adults.[4] Finds as stomach contents suggest that Harpagofututor was preyed upon by the eel-like shark Thrinacodus.[5]
Sources
[edit]- [1]
- Aquagenesis: The Origin and Evolution of Life in the Sea by Richard Ellis
- The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution by John A. Long
References
[edit]- ^ a b Lund, Richard. "Harpagofututor volsellorhinus New Genus and Species (Chondrichthyes, Chondrenchelyiformes) from the Namurian Bear Gulch Limestone, Chondrenchelys problematica Traquair (Visean), and Their Sexual Dimorphism," Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 56, No. 4, July 1982, pp. 938-958.
- ^ Bear Gulch – About Richard Lund Archived 2010-01-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d Stahl, Barbara (1999). Handbook of Paleoichthyology Volume 4 • Chondrichthyes III • Holocephali. pp. 29–30, 48, 50–51.
- ^ Grogan, Eileen D.; Lund, Richard (March 2011). "Superfoetative viviparity in a Carboniferous chondrichthyan and reproduction in early gnathostomes: PALEOZOIC CHONDRICHTHYAN LIVE BIRTH". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (3): 587–594. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00653.x.
- ^ Grogan, Eileen D.; Lund, Richard (2008). "A basal elasmobranch, Thrinacoselache gracia n. gen and sp., (Thrinacodontidae, new family) from the Bear Gulch Limestone, Serpukhovian of Montana, USA". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 28 (4): 970–988. doi:10.1671/0272-4634-28.4.970. S2CID 84735866.
