Enchodontidae

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Superclassis/Classis: Actinopterygii
Classis/Subclassis: Actinopteri
Subclassis/Infraclassis: Neopterygii
Infraclassis: Teleostei
Megacohors: Osteoglossocephalai
Supercohors: Clupeocephala
Cohors: Euteleosteomorpha
Subcohors: Neoteleostei
Infracohors: Eurypterygia
Section: Aulopa
Ordo: Aulopiformes
Subordo: †Enchodontoidei
Familia: †Enchodontidae
Subfamiliae: †Enchodontinae – †Palaeolycinae
Genera: †Cimolichthys – †Enchodus – †Eurypholis – †Halec – †Leptecodon – †Palaeolycus – †Pantophilus – †Parenchodus – †Prionolepis – †Unicachichthys
Name

Enchodontidae Lydekker in Nicholson & Lydekker, 1889:997

Type genus: Enchodus Agassiz, 1843
Synonyms

Enchodidae
Palaeolycinae Fielitz, 2004 (subfamily)

References

Nicholson, H.A. & Lydekker, R. 1889. A manual of palæontology for the use of students, with a general introduction on the principles of palaeontology, volume II. 3rd ed., Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh / London: 889–1624 pp. Reference page.
Van der Laan, R. 2018. Family-group names of fossil fishes. European Journal of Taxonomy 466: 1–167. DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2018.466 Reference page.

Links

The Paleobiology Database

Enchodontidae is an extinct family of aulopiform fish known from the mid-late Cretaceous (Albian to Maastrichtian). It contains two subfamilies with several genera, including the famous Enchodus, with great morphological disparity among members of the group.[1][2][3][4]

They were active and fast predatory aulopiforms that were important members of the Cretaceous marine food webs, with fossil remains known from the gut contents of diverse predators such as larger fish, cephalopods, and plesiosaurs.[2]
Taxonomy

The following taxa are known:[2]

Family Enchodontidae
?Genus †Rharbichthys
Genus †Palaeolycus
Genus †Unicachichthys[5]
Genus †Veridagon
Subfamily †Eurypholinae
Genus †Eurypholis
Genus †Saurorhamphus
Genus †Vegrandichthys
Subfamily †Enchodontinae
Genus †Calypsoichthys[6]
Genus †Enchodus
Genus †Parenchodus

Several other genera, such as Leptecodon, Cimolichthys, Pantopholis, and Aspidopleurus have sometimes been classified in this family in other taxonomic treatments.[5]
References

"PBDB". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2024-01-14.
Díaz-Cruz, Jesús Alberto; Alvarado-Ortega, Jesús; Giles, Sam (June 2020). "A long snout enchodontid fish (Aulopiformes: Enchodontidae) from the Early Cretaceous deposits at the El Chango quarry, Chiapas, southeastern Mexico: A multi-approach study". Palaeontologia Electronica. 23 (2). doi:10.26879/1065.
Díaz-Cruz, Jesús Alberto; Alvarado-Ortega, Jesús; Ramírez-Sánchez, Marcia M.; Bernard, Emma Louise; Allington-Jones, Lu; Graham, Mark (2021-11-01). "Phylogenetic morphometrics, geometric morphometrics and the Mexican fossils to understand evolutionary trends of enchodontid fishes". Journal of South American Earth Sciences. 111: 103492. Bibcode:2021JSAES.11103492D. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2021.103492. ISSN 0895-9811.
Davis, Matthew P.; Fielitz, Christopher (2010-12-01). "Estimating divergence times of lizardfishes and their allies (Euteleostei: Aulopiformes) and the timing of deep-sea adaptations". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 57 (3): 1194–1208. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.09.003. ISSN 1055-7903. PMID 20854916.
Díaz-Cruz, Jesús Alberto; Alvarado-Ortega, Jesús; Carbot-Chanona, Gerardo (2016-06-01). "The Cenomanian short snout enchodontid fishes (Aulopifomes, Enchodontidae) from Sierra Madre Formation, Chiapas, southeastern Mexico". Cretaceous Research. 61: 136–150. Bibcode:2016CrRes..61..136D. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2015.12.026. ISSN 0195-6671.
Argyriou, Thodoris; Alexopoulos, Apostolos; Carrillo-Briceño, Jorge D.; Cavin, Lionel (2022-04-13). "A fossil assemblage from the mid–late Maastrichtian of Gavdos Island, Greece, provides insights into the pre-extinction pelagic ichthyofaunas of the Tethys". PLOS ONE. 17 (4): e0265780. Bibcode:2022PLoSO..1765780A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0265780. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 9007369. PMID 35417474.