Arthrobatis

Arthrobatis
Temporal range: Rhaetian-Toarcian
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Chondrichthyes?
Superorder:
Batoidea?
Family:
†Arthrobatidae

Greenfield, 2024[1]
Genus:
†Arthrobatis

Type species
†Arthrobatis rileyi
(Agassiz, 1843)[3]
Synonyms
Family synonymy
Genus synonymy
Species synonymy
    • Arthropterus rileyi
      Agassiz, 1843
    • Platyrhina rileyi
      (Agassiz, 1843)[6]

Arthrobatis is an extinct genus of possible rays that lived during the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic in the United Kingdom. It contains one species, A. rileyi, and is the only member of the family Arthrobatidae. It might be the oldest known batoid, but its exact age and affinities are uncertain.

Taxonomy

Arthropterus rileyi was named by Louis Agassiz in 1843 for pectoral fins from the Lias Group of England.[3] The type material is lost; it was housed in the Bristol Museum and may have been destroyed in 1940 by the Bristol Blitz.[1] The original genus name was preoccupied by the beetle Arthropterus.[5] In 1940, Gilbert P. Whitley proposed Arthrobatis as a replacement.[2]

David S. Jordan named the family Arthropteridae in 1905.[4] It was invalidated because its type genus was preoccupied and in 2024 it was replaced by Arthrobatidae.[1]

Classification

Arthrobatis was initially identified as a shark by Agassiz.[3] In 1848, it was first classified as a ray by Christoph Giebel and was synonymized with Platyrhina.[6] Pieter Bleeker retained it as a distinct genus and assigned it to Rhinobatidae in 1859.[7] It was referred to Rajidae in 1880 by Albert Günther,[8] which was followed by Whitley.[2] In 1987, Henri Cappetta speculated that it could actually be a misidentified bony fish.[9] Arthrobatis is currently considered to be a tentative batoid, but what taxa it is most closely related to is unknown. It is potentially as old as the Rhaetian, pre-dating the Pliensbachian Antiquaobatis,[10] which would make it the earliest ray.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Greenfield, T. (2024). "Arthrobatidae nom. nov., a replacement for the invalid name Arthropteridae Jordan, 1905 (?Chondrichthyes, ?Batomorphii)". Zootaxa. 5433 (2): 299–300. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5433.2.9. PMID 39645750.
  2. ^ a b c Whitley, G.P. (1940). "The Nomenclator Zoologicus and some new fish names". The Australian Naturalist. 10 (7): 241–243.
  3. ^ a b c Agassiz, J.L.R. (1837–1843). Recherches sur les poissons fossiles. Tome III. Neuchâtel, CH & Soleure, CH: Petitpierre & Jent et Gassmann. p. 379. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.4275.
  4. ^ a b Jordan, D.S. (1905). A Guide to the Study of Fishes. Vol I. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company. p. 553. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.57157.
  5. ^ a b Macleay, W.S. (1838). Illustrations of the Annulosa of South Africa; Being a Portion of the Objects of Natural History Chiefly Collected During an Expedition into the Interior of South Africa, Under the Direction of Dr. Andrew Smith, in the Years 1834, 1835, and 1836; Fitted Out by "The Cape of Good Hope Association for Exploring Central Africa". London, UK: Smith, Elder and Co. p. 75. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.10416.
  6. ^ a b Giebel, C.G.A. (1848). Fauna der Vorwelt mit steter Berücksichtigung der lebenden Thiere. Erster Band: Wirbelthiere. Dritte Abtheilung: Fische. Leipzig, DE: F.A. Brockhaus. pp. 295 431. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.24938.
  7. ^ Bleeker, P. (1859). "Enumeratio specierum piscium hucusque in Archipelago Indico observatorum, adjectis habitationibus citationibusque, ubi descriptiones earum recentiores reperiuntur, nec non speciebus Musei Bleekeriani Bengalensibus, Japonicis, Capensibus Tasmanicisque". Acta Societatis Scientiarum Indo-Neêrlandicae. 6 (3): i–xxxvi, 1–276.
  8. ^ Günther, A.C.L.G. (1880). An Introduction to the Study of Fishes. Edinburgh, UK: Adam and Charles Black. p. 342. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.16294.
  9. ^ Cappetta, H. (1987). Handbook of Paleoichthyology. Volume 3B. Chondrichthyes II. Mesozoic and Cenozoic Elasmobranchii. Stuttgart, DE: Gustav Fischer Verlag. p. 135.
  10. ^ Stumpf, S.; Kriwet, J. (2019). "A new Pliensbachian elasmobranch (Vertebrata, Chondrichthyes) assemblage from Europe, and its contribution to the understanding of late Early Jurassic elasmobranch diversity and distributional patterns". PalZ. 93 (4): 637–658. Bibcode:2019PalZ...93..637S. doi:10.1007/s12542-019-00451-4. ISSN 1867-6812.