Atractosteus

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Atractosteus
Temporal range:
CampanianPresent, 83.5–0 Ma [1]
Alligator gar
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Clade: Ginglymodi
Order: Lepisosteiformes
Family: Lepisosteidae
Tribe: Lepisosteini
Genus: Atractosteus
(Rafinesque, 1820)
Type species
Esox spatula
Species

See text

Synonyms[2][3]
  • Lepisosteus (Atractosteus) Rafinesque 1820
  • Litholepis Rafinesque 1818
Atractosteus africanus fossils

Atractosteus is a genus of gars in the family Lepisosteidae, with three species. The genus first appeared in the Campanian in the Late Cretaceous.

Systematics[edit]

Lepisosteidae

Species[edit]

Extant species[edit]

Image Scientific name Common name Distribution
Atractosteus spatula Lacépède, 1803 Alligator gar Southern United States
Atractosteus tristoechus Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801 Cuban gar Western Cuba and the Isla de la Juventud
Atractosteus tropicus T. N. Gill, 1863 Tropical gar Southern Mexico to Costa Rica

Fossils[edit]

Former fossil genera:

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Cavin, Lionel; Martin, Michel; Valentin, Xavier (1996). "Occurrence of Atractosteus africanus (actinopterygii, lepisosteidae) in the early Campanien of Ventabren (Bouches-du-Rhône, France). Paleobiogeographical implications". Revue de Paléobiologie. 15 (1): 1–7.
  2. ^ Froese, R.; Pauly, D. (2017). "Lepisosteidae". FishBase version (02/2017). Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  3. ^ Van Der Laan, Richard; Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ronald (11 November 2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (1): 1–230. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1. PMID 25543675.
  4. ^ Brownstein, Chase Doran; Lyson, Tyler R. (2022). "Giant gar from directly above the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary suggests healthy freshwater ecosystems existed within thousands of years of the asteroid impact". Biology Letters. 18 (6): 20220118. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2022.0118. PMC 9198771. PMID 35702983.