Urolophus

Urolophus
Urolophus cruciatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Order: Myliobatiformes
Family: Urolophidae
Genus: Urolophus
J. P. Müller & Henle, 1837
Type species
Raja cruciata
Lacepède, 1804

Urolophus is a genus of round rays mostly native to the western Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, though one species occurs in the Pacific waters of the Mexican coast. Müller and Henle erected Urolophus in an 1837 issue of Bericht Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin.[1] The name is derived from the Greek oura, meaning "tail", and lophos, meaning "crest".[2] In Urolophus, the outer rims of the nostrils are not enlarged into lobes, but may form a small knob at the back.[3]

A fossil species, Urolophus crassicaudatus, has been found in Monte Bolca, northern Italy, in deposits dating back to the late Ypresian stage of the Eocene epoch (49 Ma);[4] however, Marramà et al. (2020) transferred this species to the genus Arechia.[5]

  1. ^ Müller, J. & Henle, F.G.J. (1837). "Gattungen der Haifische und Rochen nach einer von ihm mit Hrn. Henle unternommenen gemeinschaftlichen Arbeit über die Naturgeschichte der Knorpelfische". Bericht Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 1837: 111–118.
  2. ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Urolophus". FishBase. February 2015 version.
  3. ^ Yearsley, G.K. & Last, P.R. (2006). "Urolophus kapalensis sp. nov., a new stingree (Myliobatiformes: Urolophidae) off eastern Australia". Zootaxa. 1176: 41–52. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1176.1.4.
  4. ^ G. Carnevale, A. F. Bannikov, G. Marramá, J. C. Tyler, and R. Zorzin. 2014. The Pesciara-Monte Postale Fossil-Lagerstätte: 2. Fishes and other vertebrates. Rendiconti della Società Paleontologica Italiana 4:37–63.
  5. ^ Giuseppe Marramà; Giorgio Carnevale; Gavin J. P. Naylor; Jürgen Kriwet (2020). "Skeletal anatomy, phylogenetic relationships, and paleoecology of the Eocene urolophid stingray Arechia crassicaudata (Blainville, 1818) from Monte Postale (Bolca Lagerstätte, Italy)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 40 (4): e1803339. Bibcode:2020JVPal..40E3339M. doi:10.1080/02724634.2020.1803339.