Bawitius

Bawitius is an extinct genus of giant bichir from the Upper Cretaceous. The type species is B. bartheli.

Reconstruction of Bawitius bartheli, the gargantuan polypterid.

Description

Compared to modern bichirs, Bawitius was an enormous, monster-sized polypterid. The scales were different, apart from size, from those of modern bichirs: they feature a discontinuous ganoine layer, a rectilinear shape, and small articular processes.

Related pages

Polypteridae, the family where it belongs to
List of prehistoric bony fish

References

Grandstaff, B. S; Smith, J. B.; Lamanna, M. C.; Lacovara, K. J.; Abdel-Ghani, M. S. (2012). "Bawitius, gen. nov., a giant polypterid (Osteichthyes, Actinopterygii) from the Upper Cretaceous Bahariya Formation of Egypt". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (1): 17–26.
Schaal, S. (1984). Oberkretazische Osteichthyes (Knochenfische) aus dem Bereich von Bahariya und Kharge, Ägypten, und ihre Aussagen zur Palökologie und Stratigraphie. Berliner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen Reihe A, 53: 1–76.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.