What's This Fish?

[Steve Coppolo]

Pass

 

Nearly Ken. It's a bass!

[Dan]

None of the above

 

Look at the low continuous dorsal, from head to tail. Look at the bulbous, up-turned eyes. Clearly a fish that lives over/on muddy/sandy bottoms.

 

Worth checking out the Southern Sandfishes (Leptoscopidae) and their relatives.

 

The kink in the lateral line ought to be diagnostic, but I've little experience of the fishes of the SW Atlantic.

 

But never mind yer perishin' squid bait, Murphy

 

WHAT'S THIS ???

 

 

Got it ten minutes ago!

 

 

Bought it or found it?!

[Davy Holt]

Stonefish

[FishingGuernsey]

Or a rockie

 

I've seen those weird things in boxes of squid before, no idea what they are. No good for bait though...

[H.A.]

I'll go with Peter M ....

 

http://seapics.com/feature-subject/fish/co...h-pictures.html

 

[Vagabond]

It was a present from No 1 daughter, who is over on a visit from Texas, so we have just had an early Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings.

 

The fossil is not a coelacanth - look at the markedly forked tail, (coelacanths have a broad tail which tapers and a sort of extra lobe at the tip)

 

...and the fins are not lobed (those of coelacanths are).

 

It does have ganoid scales though - a feature of primitive bony fishes.

 

It was not identified at the time it was found, but I have a few reference books, and a bit of delving shows it is almost identical (but not quite, the scale count is different, although the skeleton shows the same structure) with Vinctifer comploni, an aspidorhynchid - a group now extinct, but its closest living relatives would be the freshwater garpikes of the southern USA.

 

So provisionally, I have it recorded as an aspidorhynchid, exact species unknown.

 

The rock it was found in is a lacustrine limestone from the Upper Cretaceous (Aptian) in the Aparipe Basin of NE Brazil, so that is consistent with a fish which had a similar lifestyle to the freshwater garpikes. That makes it about 110 million years old.

 

Does anyone else out there own any fossil fishes? I know Argyll (the late Gerry Castles) had some.

Edited November 23, 2008 by Vagabond

[Sharkbyte]

That makes it about 110 million years old.

 

In that case you'd better ask Poledark.