Lycoptera middendorffi

Overview

Lycoptera middendorffi is a fossil fish studied through head-to-trunk proportions and fin positions. A species description in a 1901 publication provides evidence for body comparisons. Even among apparently similar fishes, where a fin begins can be an important clue.^[1]

Key facts

Examine where each fin begins on the body. Comparisons consider its position relative to other fins as well as its individual outline. Reading several body regions together makes differences in overall organization clearer.^[1]

Time and place

Its occurrence strata in the current fossil database are summarized as Cretaceous material approximately 130–120 million years old. Old descriptions of body form can be examined alongside stratigraphic information. This connects fossil appearance and the time of preservation through different sources of evidence.^[2]

The time range describes source context, not the complete duration of this species.

Size, form and skeleton

The species description addresses head and trunk proportions and the relative positions of fin origins. The same publication also describes the forked tail and body scales of the genus Lycoptera. Overall outlines and fin arrangement can be examined together.^[1]

Habitat and reproduction

A fish’s fins attach at different positions along its trunk. The literature on this species helps compare these starting points. Moving from head to tail reveals the positions of each fin on the body.^[1]

Fossil discovery

Woodward’s 1901 catalogue presents the description of Lycoptera followed by the account of this species. Features shared by the genus can be read separately from those described for the species. Brief passages in an old catalogue remain evidence for comparing broad body organization.^[1]

References

1. Woodward (1901) — Body and fins of Lycoptera
2. Paleobiology Database — Stratigraphic records of Lycoptera middendorffi fossils
3. Rhinconichthys — Study of the head of a specialized filter-feeding fish
4. 2010 study — Giant plankton-feeding fishes of Mesozoic seas

Research questions

How does a species description differ from one covering an entire genus? For this fish, species-level fin arrangement is considered separately from genus-level descriptions of the tail and scales. This asks which taxonomic scope a feature belongs to when reading comparisons of similar organisms.^[1]

Observation

Follow the body from the head and locate the origins of each fin in sequence. Finally, examine the forked tail outline to see where each structure lies within the whole body.^[1]