Lepidotes

Lepidotes (from Greek: λεπιδωτός lepidōtós, 'covered with scales') is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish. Fossils have been found in Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks. It is a member of the Lepidotidae and has long been called a wastebasket taxon. It was originally called Lepidotus.

Description

Lepidotes was 30 cm (12 in) long. It is one example of a fish that didn't have the upper jawbones attached to the jugal bone. Some fish still have this feature, like a carp. It had a scaly and slightly elongated body. It had shiny scales with just a few punctures. Lepidotes likely ate soft-bodied animals, as shown from stomach contents. It lived in both freshwater lakes and shallow seas.

Taxonomy

Species

Four species are known:

†Lepidotes elvensis Blainville, 1818
†Lepidotes gigas Agassiz, 1832 (type species)
†Lepidotes semiserratus Agassiz, 1836
†Lepidotes bülowianus Jaekel, 1929

Synonyms

Lepidosaurus Meyer, 1833
Lepidotus (former name)
Serobodus Münster, 1812
Sphaerodus Agassiz, 1833
Plesiodus Wagner, 1863
Prolepidotus Zeitschr, 1983

Some species

Lepidotes gigas

Lepidotes gigas is the type species of this genus. It is known from the Lower Jurassic of Germany.

Lepidotes bülowianus

Lepidotes bülowianus is another species of this genus. It is known from the Lower Jurassic of Germany.

Reassigned species

Lepidotes latifrons is now a species of Isanichthys. Most of the species have been reassigned to Scheenstia. As a result, only four species are found in this genus

Related pages

Scheenstia

References

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Thies, Detlev; Stevens, Kevin; Stumpf, Sebastian (2021-06-03). "Stomach contents of the Early Jurassic fish † Lepidotes Agassiz, 1832 (Actinopterygii, Lepisosteiformes) and their palaeoecological implications". Historical Biology. 33 (6): 868–879. doi:10.1080/08912963.2019.1665040. ISSN 0891-2963. S2CID 203892069.
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