Babelichthys

Babelichthys
Temporal range: Middle-Late Eocene
Part and counterpart slabs.

Scale bar = 20 mm

Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Lampriformes
Family: Lophotidae
Genus: Babelichthys
Davesne 2017
Type species
Babelichthys olneyi
Davesne 2017

Babelichthys is an extinct genus of crestfish from Western Iran's Pabdeh Formation during the middle to late Eocene. One species is known: Babelichthys olneyi.[1]

The single known specimen consists of a head and the front-most region of the dorsal fin, preserving the extremely elongated and enlarged first dorsal-fin ray.[1]

It and the extant unicorn crestfish (Eumecichthys fiski) are each other's closest known relatives.[1]

Scale bar = 10 mm
  1. ^ a b c Davesne, Donald (2017-06-28). "A fossil unicorn crestfish (Teleostei, Lampridiformes, Lophotidae) from the Eocene of Iran". PeerJ. 5: e3381. doi:10.7717/peerj.3381. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 5493034. PMID 28674642.