Diplomystus
Name:
Diplomystus
(Double whiskers).
Phonetic: Dip-low-my-stus.
Named By: Edward Drinker Cope - 1877.
Synonyms: Clupea humilis, Clupea theta,
Clupea
vectensis, Copeichthys, Diplomystus analis, Diplomystus pectorosus,
Diplomystus theta.
Classification: Chordata, Actinopterygii,
Clupeiformes, Ellimmichthyidae.
Species: D. dentatus (type), D.
altisomus, D.
birdii, D. dartevellei, D. dentatus, D. dubretreiti, D. humilis, D.
kokuraensis, D. primotinus, D. shengliensis, D. vectensis.
Diet: Small invertebrates and small fish.
Size: Up to 65 centimetres long.
Known locations: USA, Wyoming - Green River
Formation. Also Japan - Third Formation, Italy and Morocco - Akfabou
Formation.
Time period: Lower Eocene.
Fossil representation: So numerous no one knows for
certain how many specimens have been recovered.
Diplomystus
are thought to be related to modern day herring, and like them their
strongly upturned mouths suggest that they fed in open water rather
than feeding off the bottom. Although Diplomystus
are known to have
grown up to sixty-five centimetres long, fossils of Diplomystus
are
usually smaller with fossils even revealing the presence of Diplomystus
fry.
Diplomystus
are often found in association with other Eocene fish from the Green
River Formation, particularly the genus Knightia.
In fact fossil
evidence suggests that Diplomystus preyed upon Knightia.
Like
Knightia, Diplomystus are
quite common and are often found for sale
on the fossil market.
Further reading
- Early Cretaceous freshwater fishes from Northern Kyushu, Japan I.
Description of two new species of the clupeid genus Diplomystus - T.
Uyeno - 1979.
- Early Cretaceous Freshwater Fishes From Japan and Korea - Yoshitaka
Yabumoto, Seong-Young Yang & Tae-Wan Kim - 2006.
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