Harpagofututor

Taxobox
name = "Harpagofututor"
fossil_range = Mississippian

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image_width = 300px
image_caption = "Echinochimaera" (top) and "Harpagofututor" (bottom)
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
subphylum = Vertebrata
infraphylum = Gnathostomata
classis = Chondrichthyes
ordo=Chondrenchelyiformes
genus= "Harpagofututor"
species = "H. volsellorhinus"

"Harpagofututor" is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fish from the Mississippian of North America.

It was an eel-shaped fish with almost no scales. About eight inches long, it swam with some help from its fins, but also relied on whole-body locomotion to move. The fish also had teeth sufficinet for eating shellfish. [ [http://www.sju.edu/research/bear_gulch/pages_fish_species/Harpagofututor_volsellorhinus.php Bear Gulch - Harpogofutor volsellorhinus ] ]

The "Harpagofututor" is thought to be related to the cochliodonts, chimaeroids, and "Chondrenchelys problematica". [ [http://www.sju.edu/research/bear_gulch/pages_fish_species/Harpagofututor_volsellorhinus.php Bear Gulch - Harpogofutor volsellorhinus ] ]

The fish was discovered in the 1980s in Montana's Bear Gulch area by Adelphia University palentologist Richard Lund, who has been exploring the limestone formations of the region since 1969. [Lund, Richard. "Harpagofututor volsellorhinus New Genus and Species (Chondrichthyes, Chondrenchelyiformes) from the Namurian Bear Gulch Limestone, Chondrenchelys problematica Traquair (Visean), and Their Sexual Dimorphism," "Journal of Paleontology", Vol. 56, No. 4, July 1982, pp. 938-958.] [ [http://www.sju.edu/research/bear_gulch/pages_other/other_lund.php Bear Gulch - About Richard Lund ] ] The area was thought to be the location of a shallow bay. Fish remains are found throughout the area. Further examinations of the soft tissue pigments of these fossilized remains led to more information about the fish and information about its internal organs, including its reproductive system. [Grogan, Eileen D. and Richard Lund. "Soft Tissue Pigments of the Upper Mississippian Chondrenchelyid, Harpagofututor volsellorhinus (Chondrichthyes, Holocephali) from the Bear Gulch Limestone, Montana, USA," "Journal of Paleontology", Vol. 71, No. 2, March 1997, pp. 337-342. ]

ources

* [http://www.sju.edu/research/bear_gulch/pages_fish_species/Harpagofututor_volsellorhinus.php]
* "Aquagenesis: The Origin and Evolution of Life in the Sea" by Richard Ellis
* "The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution" by John A. Long

References