Cretazeus

Cretazeus
Temporal range: Late Campanian/Early Maastrichtian
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Life restoration
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Zeiformes
Family: †Cretazeidae
Tyler, Bronzi & Ghiandoni, 2000
Genus: †Cretazeus
Tyler, Bronzi & Ghiandoni, 2000
Species:
†C. rinaldii
Binomial name
†Cretazeus rinaldii
Tyler, Bronzi & Ghiandoni, 2000 [1]

Cretazeus is an extinct genus of marine zeiform fish from the Late Cretaceous.[2] It contains a single species, Cretazeus rinaldii from the late Campanian or early Maastrichtian age of Nardò, Italy. It is the oldest known zeiform fish, and is alternatively considered the only member of the family Cretazeidae or the most basal member of the family Parazenidae.[3][4][5]

Uniquely, despite its age, Cretazeus is considered a derived zeiform nested within the order's crown group, as the sister to the Parazenidae; many other lineages of both extant and fossil zeiforms are more basal than Cretazeus, despite only appearing later in the geological record. This suggests that several lineages of zeiforms were present during the Late Cretaceous and survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction, with several surviving to the present day, despite this not being preserved in the fossil record.[4][6][7][8]

  1. ^ J. C. Tyler, P. Bronzi & A. Ghiandoni (2000). "The Cretaceous fishes of Narò 11°. A new genus and species of Zeiformes, Cretazeus rinaldii, the earliest record for the order". Bolletino del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona. 24: 11–28.
  2. ^ "PBDB Taxon". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2024-06-22.
  3. ^ James C. Tyler, Bruce O 'Toole & Richard Winterbottom (2003). "Phylogeny of the Genera and Families of Zeiform Fishes, with Comments on Their Relationships with Tetraodontiforms and Caproids". Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology. 618 (618): 1–110. doi:10.5479/si.00810282.618. hdl:10088/5182.
  4. ^ a b Tyler, James C.; Santini, Francesco (2005). "A phylogeny of the fossil and extant zeiform‐like fishes, Upper Cretaceous to Recent, with comments on the putative zeomorph clade (Acanthomorpha)". Zoologica Scripta. 34 (2): 157–175. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2005.00180.x. ISSN 0300-3256.
  5. ^ Laan, Richard van der (2018-10-11). "Family-group names of fossil fishes". European Journal of Taxonomy (466). doi:10.5852/ejt.2018.466. ISSN 2118-9773.
  6. ^ Grande, Terry C.; Borden, W. Calvin; Wilson, Mark V. H.; Scarpitta, Lindsay (2018). "Phylogenetic Relationships among Fishes in the Order Zeiformes Based on Molecular and Morphological Data". Copeia. 106 (1): 20–48. doi:10.1643/CG-17-594. ISSN 0045-8511.
  7. ^ Davesne, Donald; Carnevale, Giorgio; Friedman, Matt (2017). Johanson, Zerina (ed.). "Bajaichthys elegans from the Eocene of Bolca (Italy) and the overlooked morphological diversity of Zeiformes (Teleostei, Acanthomorpha)". Palaeontology. 60 (2): 255–268. doi:10.1111/pala.12280. hdl:2027.42/136341. ISSN 0031-0239.
  8. ^ Near, Thomas J.; Thacker, Christine E. (2024-04-18). "Phylogenetic Classification of Living and Fossil Ray-Finned Fishes (Actinopterygii)". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 65 (1). doi:10.3374/014.065.0101. ISSN 0079-032X.