Hensodon

Hensodon
Temporal range: Upper Cenomanian[1]
Artist's impression of a male (top) and female
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Pycnodontiformes
Family: Coccodontidae
Genus: Hensodon
Kriwet, 2004
Species:
H. spinosus
Binomial name
Hensodon spinosus
Kriwet, 2004

Hensodon spinosus is an extinct pycnodontid that lived during the Upper Cenomanian of what is now Lebanon.[1] H. spinosus superficially resembled a marine angelfish with a massive head, and a very spiny pectoral girdle. Different specimens have different arrangements of the horn-like frontal spines. One form has the horns arranged as a double-prong, assumed to be the male, and the other form, assumed to be the female, having the horns one after the other, like those of a rhinoceros.[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 363: 1–560. Archived from the original on 2008-04-30. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
  2. ^ CAPASSO, Luigi Lorenzo; Louis TAVERNE; Roy NOHRA (20 October 2010). "A re-description of Hensodon spinosus, a remarkable coccodontid fish(Actinopterygii, †Pycnodontiformes) from the Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous)of Haqel, Lebanon" (PDF). Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre. 80: 145–162.[permanent dead link]