- Source: Dapalis
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.
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. Fossils are abundant throughout Europe, especially during the late Paleogene and early Neogene, in the form of both body fossils and otoliths.
Species
The following species are known from both body fossils & otoliths. Most were initially classified in the preoccupied genus Smerdis:
D. aduncus (Heckel, 1854) - Early Miocene of Italy [fossil specimen]
D. analis (Heckel, 1854) - Early Miocene of Italy [fossil specimen]
D. angustus Reichenbacher & Weidmann 1992 - Early Oligocene of France, Switzerland & Romania [otoliths]
D. antipodes Schwarzhans 1980 - early-middle Eocene (Ypresian/Lutetian) of New Zealand [otoliths]
D. bartensteini Malz 1978 - Early Miocene (Aquitanian) of Germany [otoliths]
D. borkensis (Weiler, 1961) - Early Oligocene of Germany [otolith]
D. cappadocensi Menzel & Becker-Platen 1981 - Early Miocene (Aquitanian/Burdigalian) of Turkey [otoliths]
D. carinatus Stinton & Kissling 1968 - Late Oligocene/Early Miocene (Chattian/Aquitanian) of France & Germany [otoliths]
D. crassirostris (Rzehak, 1893) - Burdigalian of Germany [otolith]
D. curvirostris (Rzehak 1893) - Burdigalian of Germany & the Czech Republic [otolith]
D. distortus Nolf, 2003 - Late Cretaceous (Santonian) of Spain [otoliths]
D. elongatus (von Meyer, 1851) - Early Miocene of Germany [fossil specimen]
D. erici Nolf, Rana & Prasad, 2008 - Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of India (Intertrappean Beds) [otoliths]
D. formosus (von Meyer, 1848) - early Miocene of Switzerland, Germany, and possibly the Czech Republic [fossil specimens, otoliths]
D. heersensis (Winkler, 1869) - Early Eocene of Belgium [fossil fragments]
D. hungaricus (Schubert, 1912) - Middle Eocene (Lutetian) of Hungary [otolith]
D. kaelini Reichenbacher, 1993 - Early Miocene of Germany [otolith]
D. latior (Agassiz ex Oken, 1836) - origin unknown [indeterminate fossil specimen]
D. macrurus (Agassiz ex Oken 1835) - late Oligocene of France (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) & Bulgaria [fossil specimens, otoliths]
D. minutus (de Blainville, 1818) - late Oligocene of France (Aix-en-Provence) (type species) [fossil specimens, otoliths]
D. pauciserratus Ahnelt, Bradić-Milinović & Schwarzhans, 2024 - early Oligocene of Serbia [fossil specimen, otoliths]
D. rhenanus (Koken, 1891) - early Miocene of Germany [otolith]
D. rhoensis (Winkler, 1880) - early Miocene of Germany [fossil specimen]
D. rhomboidalis Stinton & Kissling 1968 - middle Oligocene of Germany [otolith]
D. sandbergeri (Winkler, 1880) - middle Oligocene of Germany [fossil specimen]
D. sauvagei (Brongniart, 1880) - early Miocene of France (possibly synonymous with D. aduncus) [fossil specimen]
D. taramellii (Bassani, 1889) - early Miocene of Italy [fossil specimen]
D. transylvanicus Reichenbacher & Codrea, 1999 - Early Oligocene of Romania [otoliths]
D. ventralis (Agassiz, 1836) - Late Eocene of France (Montmartre) [fossil specimen]
D. ventricosus Nolf & Reichenbacher, 1999 - Middle Eocene (Lutetian/Bartonian) of Italy [otolith]
Indeterminate otoliths are known from the Late Paleocene of Australia.
The former otolith-based species D. bhatiai and D. buffetauti from the Maastrichtian of India are now synonymized with one another and are thought to belong to the genus Anthracoperca. The species D. budensis is now placed in the percoid genus Oligoserranoides. Former species D. sandbergeri, D. rhoensis, and D. sieblosensis are now synonymized with one another and placed in the genus Dapaloides. Specimens of the former species Smerdis indica from Monte Bolca, Italy are now known to be of the percoid fish Cyclopoma.
Distribution
Dapalis is the second most common fossil fish of the Aix-en-Provence lagerstatte in France, where large numbers of articulated specimens are known. A specific site dating to the latest Oligocene has extremely abundant fossils of an indeterminate Dapalis species that replaces the D. minutus of slightly earlier sites in the same region. A roadcut near Avignon has another exposure of the Aix-en-Provence formation, with extremely abundant D. minutus and another undescribed species, to the extent that a nearby blind alley is nicknamed the “Impasse des Dapalis”.
Some fossil otoliths of Dapalis are abundant enough to be regional index fossils, with Dapalis formosus, an abundant species of the western Paratethys Sea, indicating the regional Ottnangian stage of the Miocene for example.
See also
Prehistoric fish
List of prehistoric bony fish
References
Bony fish in the online Sepkoski Database
The Paleobiology Database
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Dapalis
- Dapalis macrurus
- Ambassidae
- Pyrausta dapalis
- Jupiter (god)
- Dapaloides
- 2024 in paleoichthyology
- Epithets of Jupiter
- Géologique du Luberon National Nature Reserve
- Intertrappean Beds
