Dapalis Temporal range:
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Specimen of D. macrurus from France | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Family: | Ambassidae |
Genus: | †Dapalis Gistl, 1848 |
Type species | |
†Perca minuta de Blainville, 1818
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Species | |
See text | |
Synonyms | |
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Dapalis is an extinct genus of prehistoric glassfish known from the Late Cretaceous to the Early Miocene. It is known from both freshwater and marine habitats of India, Australia, New Zealand, and much of mainland Europe.[1]
It is one of the oldest glassfishes known in the fossil record, and is thought to be a stem group member of the Ambassidae as it appears to predate the most recent common ancestor of modern glassfish, which likely evolved in the early Cenozoic in freshwater habitats of Australia.[2] Fossils are abundant throughout Europe, especially during the late Paleogene and early Neogene, in the form of both body fossils and otoliths.