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Protosphyraena Temporal range: Cretaceous, Albian–Maastrichtian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Skull and pectoral fin fossils of Protosphyraena
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	†Pachycormiformes
Family:	†Pachycormidae
Genus:	†Protosphyraena Leidy, 1857
Type species
†Protosphyraena ferox Leidy, 1857
Species
†P. ferox (type) †P. bentoniana †P. compressirostris †P. gibberula †P. hurleyi †P. nitida †P. perniciosa †P. sequax †P. spectabilis †P. tenuis †P. terminalis
Synonyms
Australopachycormus Kear, 2007 Ptychodus arcuatus Ptychodus gibberulus Ptychodus spectabilis Saurocephalus striatus Protosphyraena terminata (lapsus calami)

Protosphyraena is a fossil genus of swordfish-like marine fish, that thrived worldwide during the Cretaceous period (Albian-Maastrichtian). Fossil remains of this taxon are mainly discovered in North America and Europe, and potential specimens are also known from Asia, Africa and Australia. Its fossils are best known from the Smoky Hill Member of the Niobrara Chalk Formation of Kansas (Late Coniacian-Early Campanian).

Protosphyraena was a large fish, averaging 2–3 metres (6.6–9.8 ft) in length. Protosphyraena shared the Cretaceous oceans with aquatic reptiles, such as mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, as well as with many other species of extinct predatory fish. The name Protosphyraena is a combination of the Greek word protos ("early") plus Sphyraena, the genus name for barracuda, as paleontologists initially mistook Protosphyraena for an ancestral barracuda. Recent research shows that the genus Protosphyraena is not at all related to the true swordfish-family Xiphiidae, but belongs to the extinct family Pachycormidae.

History and taxonomy

As is the case with many fossil vertebrates discovered by 19th century paleontologists, the taxonomy of Protosphyraena has had a confusing history. Fossil pectoral spines belonging to this taxon were first recognized in 1822, from chalk deposits in England, by Gideon Mantell, the physician and geologist who also discovered the dinosaur Iguanodon. In 1857, the fish was named Protosphyraena ferox by the renowned American naturalist and paleontologist, Joseph Leidy, based on Mantell's English finds. Earlier, Leidy had published an illustration of a Protosphyraena tooth from the Cretaceous-aged Navesink Formation of New Jersey (Maastrichtian), but mistakenly identified it as having come from a dinosaur. During the 1870s, B. F. Mudge, a fossil collector supplying material to rival paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, discovered a number of specimens of Protosphyraena in Niobrara exposures in Rooks and Ellis counties in Kansas and sent them back east. Between 1873 and 1877, Cope renamed three species based on Mudge's specimens, all of which would eventually be recognized as belonging to the genus Protosphyraena: Erisichte nitida, "Portheus" gladius, and "Pelecopterus" pernicciosus. Between 1895 and 1903, paleontologists in America and England, including Arthur Smith Woodward (1895), Loomis (1900), O. P. Hay (1903), in a series of important works, reviewed the genus, adding much to our understanding of this fish.

Today, two species of Protosphyraena are recognized from the Niobrara Chalk of the western United States: P. nitida and P. perniciosa. An additional species, P. bentonianum was named by Albin Stewart in 1898, based on a specimen from the older Lincoln Member of the Greenhorn Limestone (Upper Cenomanian). Perhaps the oldest remains of Protosphyraena in North America have come from the upper beds of the Dakota Sandstone (middle Cenomanian) in Russell County, Kansas (Everhart, 2005; p. 91).

The species Australopachycormus hurleyi (meaning "southern Pachycormus" and named after Tom Hurley, who discovered the holotype specimen) was a long-billed pachycormid from the Albian of Queensland, Australia, that was noted to be the earliest Cretaceous pachycormid from the Southern Hemisphere. It was already noted to closely resemble Protosphyraena during its description. Later studies have found Australopachycormus to be indistinguishable from Protosphyraena, and they have thus been synonymized. The presence of Protosphyraena in Australia suggests that it had already achieved a very wide global distribution early on in its evolutionary history.

Anatomy

In its general body plan, Protosphyraena resembled a modern sailfish, though it was smaller with a shorter rostrum, was somewhat less hydrodynamic, and adults possessed large blade-like teeth (adults of living swordfish species are toothless). Complete skeletons of Protosphyraena are relatively rare, but in parts of the Niobrara Chalk, the Mooreville Chalk Formation of Alabama, and other geological formations, fragmentary specimens are quite common and most often include isolated teeth, the distinctive rostrum, and fragments of the long saw-edged pectoral fin first described by Mantell. Usually, portions of the skull and postcranial skeleton are found separately. This preservational bias can be explained by the fact that the skeleton of Protosphyraena was less ossified than that of most bony fishes and tended to be torn apart by scavengers or decay before burial and fossilization (Everhart, 2005; p. 93). Like most of the Cretaceous marine fauna, Protosphyraena became extinct at the end of the Mesozoic; the resemblance to living swordfish apparently results from convergent evolution.

Gallery

• Skull fossil
• Holotype rostrum of Protosphyraena nitida (from Hay, 1903)
• Holotype of Protosphyraena nitida (from Hay, 1903); portions of dentary, splenial, pectoral fin
• Pectoral girdle of Protosphyraena perniciosa and other fossils

References

1. ^ Kanarkina, A.; Zverkov, N.; Polyakova, I. (2024). "New evidence of the global distribution of the swordfish-like pachycormid Protosphyraena in the late Early Cretaceous and a review of global records of the genus". Cretaceous Research. 166. 106019. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2024.106019.
2. Kear, Benjamin P. (2007-12-12). "First record of a pachycormid fish (Actinopterygii: Pachycormiformes) from the Lower Cretaceous of Australia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 27 (4): 1033–1038. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[1033:FROAPF]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 89193950.
3. Gouiric-Cavalli, Soledad; Arratia, Gloria (2021-11-02). "A new †Pachycormiformes (Actinopterygii) from the Upper Jurassic of Gondwana sheds light on the evolutionary history of the group". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 19 (21): 1517–1550. doi:10.1080/14772019.2022.2049382. ISSN 1477-2019.
4. Kanarkina, A.; Zverkov, N.; Polyakova, I. (2024). "New evidence of the global distribution of the swordfish-like pachycormid Protosphyraena in the late Early Cretaceous and a review of global records of the genus". Cretaceous Research. 106019. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2024.106019.

• Cope, E. D. (1873). "". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 24: 280–281.
• Cope, E. D. 1873. On two new species of Saurodontidae. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 25:337-339.
• Cope, E. D. 1874. Review of the vertebrata of the Cretaceous period found west of the Mississippi River. U. S. Geolological Survey of the Territories, Bulletin 1(2):3-48.
• Cope, E. D. 1875. The Vertebrata of the Cretaceous Formations of the West. Report of the U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories. 2 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office):302 pp.
• Everhart, M. J. 2005. Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea. Indiana University Press: 323 pp.
• Hay, O. P. (1903). "On certain genera and species of North American Cretaceous Actinopterous Fishes". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 19: 1–95.
• Leidy, J. (1857). "Remarks on Saurocephalus and its allies". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 11: 91–95. doi:10.2307/3231930. JSTOR 3231930.
• Loomis, F. B. (1900). "Die anatomie und die verwandtschaft der Ganoid-und Knochen-fische aus der Kreide-Formation von Kansas, U.S.A". Palaeontographica. 46: 213–283.
• Mantell, G. 1822. The fossils of the South Downs; or illustrations of the geology of Sussex. London: Lupton Relfe. xiv + 327 pp.
• Stewart, A. (1900). "Teleosts of the Upper Cretaceous". The University Geological Survey of Kansas. 6: 257–403.
• Woodward, A. S. 1895. Catalogue of the fossil fishes in the British Museum. Part 3. British Museum of Natural History, London. pp. i-xliii, 1–544.

External links

• Protosphyraena: A Late Cretaceous "Swordfish" at the Oceans of Kansas website. Includes detailed taxonomic history, life restorations, bibliography, many photos of fossil remains.
• The most complete skeleton of Protosphyraena pernicosa yet found, on display at the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center.

v t e Teleostei sensu de Pinna, 1996 (= Teleosteomorpha)
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Subclass: Neopterygii Actinopterygii see Actinopterygii Neopterygii see Neopterygii Teleostei see below↓
Teleostei Teleostei †Atacamichthys †Baleiichthys †Barschichthys †Bunoderma †Ceramurus †Diplospondichthys? †Dorsetichthys †Elpistoichthys †Eurycormus †Galkinia †Grimmenichthys †Hengnania †Hulettia? †Hungkiichthys †Ichthyokentema †Jialingichthys †Ligulella †Luxembourgichthys †Majokia †Marcopoloichthys †Neobaleiichthys †Oligopleurus? †Pholidophorichthys †Pholidophoroides †Pholidophoropsis †Prohalecites †Ruedersdorfia †Seefeldia †Seinstedtia †Signeuxella †Pachycormidae Eugnathides? Euthynotus Haasichthys Notodectes Pseudoasthenocormus Sauropsis Hypsocorminae Australopachycormus Hypsocormus Kaykay Orthocormus Protosphyraena Simocormus Asthenocorminae Asthenocormus Bonnerichthys Germanostomus Leedsichthys Martillichthys Ohmdenia Pachycormus? Rhinconichthys Saurostomus †Aspidorhynchidae Aspidorhynchus Belonostomus Jonoichthys Pseudovinctifer Richmondichthys Vinctifer †Pholidophoridae sensu stricto Annaichthys Ceneichthys Eopholidophorus Knerichthys Lombardichthys Malingichthys Parapholidophorus Pholidoctenus Pholidophoretes Pholidophorus Pholidorhynchodon Pseudopholidoctenus Zambellichthys †Archaeomaenidae Aphnelepis Archaeomaene Gurvanichthys Oreochima Wadeichthys Zaxilepis †Siyuichthyidae Bogdaichthys Dsungarichthys Manasichthys Siyuichthys Wukangia †Pleuropholidae Austropleuropholis Gondwanapleuropholis Parapleuropholis Pleuropholis Zurupleuropholis †Ankylophoridae Ankylophorus Lehmanophorus Neopholidophoropsis Pholidophoristion Siemensichthys Songaichthys Steurbautichthys †Catervariolidae Catervariolus Kisanganichthys Songanella Cycloid clade †Antofagastaichthys †Araripichthys †Cavenderichthys †Koonwarria? †Luisiella †Paraclupavus †Pholidolepis? †Todiltia †Waldmanichthys †Leptolepididae Leptolepis Longileptolepis Proleptolepis †Ascalaboidae Ascalabos Ebertichthys Tharsis †Crossognathiformes see Crossognathiformes †Ichthyodectiformes see Ichthyodectiformes Crown-Teleostei see below↓
Crown-Teleostei Elopomorpha see Elopomorpha †Orthogonikleithridae Cavenderichthys? Leptolepides Orthogonikleithrus Waldmanichthys? Osteoglossomorpha see Osteoglossomorpha †Tselfatiiformes Eoplethodus Protobramidae Abisaadichthys Eusebichthys Protobrama Plethodidae Bachea Bananogmius Concavotectum Dixonanogmius Enischnorhynchus Luxilites Martinichthys Moorevillia Niobrara Paranogmius Pentanogmius Plethodus Pseudonogmius Pseudothryptodus Rhamphoichthys Syntegmodus Thryptodus Tselfatia Zanclites Clupeocephala Otocephala Euteleostei

This article about a Cretaceous fish is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

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• Late Cretaceous fish of North America
• Cretaceous fish of Australia
• Pachycormiformes
• Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera
• Cretaceous bony fish
• Cretaceous fish of Europe
• Albian genus first appearances
• Maastrichtian genus extinctions
• Demopolis Chalk
• Cretaceous fish stubs
• Taxa named by Joseph Leidy
• Fossil taxa described in 1857