Palæos:
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Taxon Index
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The
Vertebrates
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A-C
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Taxon Index: A-C
- Acanthodiformes
X: a long-lived group of very Osteichthyan-like acanthodians
- Acanthodii
X: the other teleostomes, sister of Osteichthyes, with the
skull based on large cartilaginous plates and with many fin spines
- Acanthomorpha:
a big fish clade, including tunas, basses, flounders, cods, and billfishes
among many others.
- Acanthostega
X: the most basal well-known tetrapod
- Achoania
X: the sister of crown group Sarcopterygii?
- Acipenseriformes:
sturgeons, paddlefish & extinct relatives
- Acrocanthosaurus
X: an Albian-Aptian theropod -- and contender for largest land
predator of all time
- Acrochordoidea:
wart snakes or file snakes
- Acrodonta:
acrodont lizards, i.e. agamids, chamaeleons and that lot.
- Actinistia: the
coelacanth group, odd lobe-finned fish with poorly known relationships
- Actinolepida
X: a cosmopolitan placoderm group closely related to
the phylolepidids
- Actinolepidoidei X: actinolepids + phylolepidids
- Actinopteri:
all actinopterygians (ray-finned fish) except the very primitive Cladistia
- Actinopterygii:
the ray-finned fish
- Adapiformes
X: the extinct (Paleocene to Miocene) sister group of
the lorises and lemurs
- Adelogyrinidae
X: another strange and poorly-known Carboniferous
lepospondyl group with a long trunk, but with limb girdles, orbits very
far forward.
- Aegyptosaurus
X: an Early Cretaceous African sauropod just basal to the
Titanosauria
- Aepyornithiformes
X: the elephant birds of Pleistocene Madagascar
- Aerosaurus
X: a Permo-Carboniferous varanodont
"pelycosaur," more robust than most in the family
- Aetosauridae
X: also known as Stagnolepidae -- armored suchian vegetarians
of the Triassic
- Aetosaurus
X: a smallish aetosaur with square armor plates
- Agamidae:
Old World iguanas; a diverse group of evil-looking lizards with names like
Draco and Moloch
- Aigialosauridae
X: late Mesozoic aquatic reptiles from Europe, sister
group of the mosasaurs
- Aïstopoda
X: snake-like Permo-Carboniferous lepospondyls
- Alamosaurus
X: a Late Cretaceous titanosaurid immigrant to North America
- Albertosaurus
X: a Late Cretaceous, more northerly cousin of Tyrannosaurus
- Alectrosaurus
X: an Asian relative of Tyrannosaurus
- Allenypterus
X: a weird Bear Gulch actinistian
- Alethinophidia:
all snakes except the "blind snakes"
- Alligatoridae:
alligators, caimans, and a few others
- Allosauridae
X: Allosaurus and Acrocanthosaurus --
Late Mesozoic carnosaurs
- Allosauroidea
X: all the carnosaurs except some early odd-balls
- Allotheria
X: haramyids and multituberculates. This clade
may or may not exist.
- Altirhinus
X: Cretaceous hadrosauroid, sister of the
Hadrosauridae.
- Altungulata:
horses > cows
- Alvarezsauridae
X: Late Cretaceous flightless birds with very wide
distribution -- and very peculiar arms.
- Alvarezsaurus
X: a large and poorly known basal Alvarezsaurid from South America
- Alxasaurus
X: a primitive therizinosaur from the Albian of China
- Ambulocetidae
X: "walking whales" -- early amphibious
cetaceans from the Middle Eocene
- Ameridelphia:
South American marsupials
- Amiidae:
probably Amiopsis + Amia -- the Late Mesozoic, Tethys-based
branch of the Amiiformes
- Amiiformes:
probably the original (Triassic) worldwide radiation of medium-sized
freshwater neopterygians
- Amiinae:
the bowfin, Amia and its closest relatives
- Amiopsis
X: a Late Mesozoic European member of the Amiidae -- perhaps a
staple of Archaeopteryx
- Amniota:
fully land-adapted tetrapods
- Ampelosaurus
X: a primitive, but very late, armored titanosaur, from the
Maastrichtian of Europe
- Amphiaspidida X:
really strange, highly armored, jawless fishes from the Devonian of Russia
- Amphiaspidoidei
X: the most extreme of the amphiaspids
- Amphibolurinae:
Australian agamid lizards
- Amphilestes
X: a Middle Jurassic triconodont mammal with interlocking molars
- Amphisbaena:
secretive legless lizards
- Anagalida:
rabbits, rodents and elephant shrews
- Anagalidae
X: poorly known and rarely studied rabbit/rodent cousins from the
Paleogene
- Anagaloidea
X: more of the same
- Anapsida: one of the
four great amniote clades, this group includes pareiasaurs, turtles, and
bolosaurs
- Anarosaurus
X: a small Middle Triassic pachypleurosaur with disproportionately
long hind legs
- Anaspida X:
odd, very basal and early jawless fishes without shields (hence the name)
and with numerous gill openings in a slanting line
- Anatalavis
X: Cretaceous to Eocene goose/duck, sister of the magpie goose of
Australia.
- Anatidae:
the crown group of living ducks, geese & swans
- Anatinae:
ducks
- Anatini:
dabbling ducks
- Anatoidea: ducks,
swans, most geese & close relatives
- Anatolepis
X: very early jawless fish from the Ordovician of North
America
- Anchisaurus X: a rather
basal prosauropod from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic of North
America and perhaps elsewhere
- Andesaurus
X: big, relatively basal titanosaur from South America
- Angistorhinus
X: a Carnian phytosaur with a tall skull and down-turned rostrum
- Anguimorpha:
the clade uniting anguimorph and varanoid lizards
- Anguoidea: Xenosaurus,
anguid lizards, shinisaurs, etc.
- Angusaurus
X: a long-snouted trematosaurid temnospondyl from the Early Triassic
of Russia.
- Anhimidae:
screamers
- Aniliidae: the
false coral snake of South America
- Aniloidea: an
almost extinct snake group, sister of the macrostomates
- Ankylosauria X:
ankylosaurs and nodosaurs
- Ankylosauridae X:
Ankylosaurus > Nodosaurus
- Ankylosauromorpha
X: probably Ankylosaurus > Stegosaurus
- Anchipteraspididae
X: small pteraspidid Siluro-Devonian jawless fishes which resemble
cyathaspidiforms in having a single, fused branchio- cornual plate
- Anomalepididae:
a small family of larger, South American scolecophidians ("blind
snakes")
- Anomochilidae:
Anomochilus, a very strange and derived aniloid snake
- Anomodontia X: dicynodonts
and other toothless Permo-Triassic therapsids
- Anoplosuchus
X: an early (Permian) and basal dicynodont therapsid
- Anoplotheroidea
X: an early Neogene ungulate group, convergent on camels
- Anotophysi:
milkfishes and other freshwater teleosts without Weberian ossicles
- Anseranas:
the magpie goose of Australia & New Guinea
- Anseres:
ducks, geese & swans
- Anseriformes:
ducks > chickens. Of extant birds,
ducks, geese, swans, & screamers.
- Anserinae:
geese & swans
- Anteosauria X:
the first really succesful therapsids, from the later Permian of Africa,
Asia & China
- Anteosauridae
X: rather dog-like carniverous Permian therapsids
- Anteosaurinae
X: large, Late Permian anteosaurs with oddly short legs.
- Anteosaurus
X: well-known standard bearer of the family Anteosauridae
- Anthracosauroidea
X: embolomeres, gephyrostegids and a few other Late
Paleozoic tetrapod odds and ends
- Anthracotheroidea
X: Eocene artiodactyl group of uncertain composition, probably
close to hippos.
- Anthropoidea:
Texans > tarsiers, including apes, monkeys and people
- Antiarcha
X: one of the two big placoderm clades, this is the Bothriolepis,
bug-like group
- Anura: crown group
frogs
- Apalolepididae
X: a scale family of Early Devonian theolodontid thelodonts
- Apatosaurinae
X: Apatosaurus, the former Brontosaurus.
- Apodiformes:
hummingbirds and swifts
- Apternodontidae
X: Eocene to Oligocene proto-shrews from North America.
- Apterygiformes:
kiwis
- Archaeornithes X:
Archaeopteryx
- Araeoscelidans
X: Permo-Carboniferous lizard-like critters who form one of the
anchors for the crown group Diapsida.
- Aragosaurus
X: a primitive macronarian sauropod, from the Early
Cretaceous of Europe
- Arandaspida
X: a very early (Ordovician) line of pteraspidomorph fishes
- Archaeonectrus
X: a basal pliosauroid from the Early Jurassic of Europe
- Archaeosyodon
X: a basal ?anteosaurian dinocephalian from the Middle Permian of
Russia with a deep and massive skull
- Archaeothyris
X: a Late Carboniferous "pelycosaur" from
Canada, the oldest synapsid known from reasonably good remains.
- Archegosauroidea
X: big, rather slim and croc-like temnospondyls from the Permian
- Archonta: a
big, important, but still uncertain clade including primates, tree shrews
and bats.
- Archosauria:
rocs + crocs, a big crown group also including dinosaurs and (probably)
pterosaurs
- Archosauriformes:
an arbitrary rest stop between Archosauromorpha and Archosauria, defined
as Proterosuchus + birds.
- Archosauromorpha:
drakes > snakes. One of the two complementary reptile clades
making up the Sauria.
- Arctostylopida
X: the most primitive paraxonic (cows > horses) ungulates,
mostly from the Paleocene of Laurasia
- Argentinasaurus
X: perhaps the largest land animal ever, and perhaps the most
frequently misspelled dinosaur, a huge sauropod from the Early Cretaceous
of you-know-where
- Argentiniformes:
herring, smelt, etc.
- Arthrodira
X: placoderms with a movable joint between the head and body,
including the famous Dunkleosteus.
- Artiodactyla:
cows > whales, perhaps, or sows + cows.
- Ascidiacea:
Classic urochordates with "tadpole" larvae and sessile adult.
- Asioryctitheria
X: Epitherians, but no one knows what sort....
- Asterolepidoidei
X: some late and deviant antiarch placoderms with
simplified pectoral limbs/fins and very long armor
- Astraspidae X:
Ordovician fishes with tessellated armor and large, mushroom-shaped dentine
tubercles
- Ateleaspis X: our favorite
osteostracan, which has always reminded us of an "Ironclad" from
the American Civil War.
- Atlasaurus X: an early brachiosaur from the
Middle Jurassic of Africa
- Atractaspididae: very basal colubrid
snakes
- Attenborosaurus
X: an early plesiosaur
- Ausktribosphenidae X: An extinct group of Cretaceous Australian
tribosphenic mammals which are, or have a striking dental similarity to,
placental mammals.
- Australidelphia: the Australian
radiation of marsupials
- Australosphenida:
Gondwanan mammaliforms with convergently derived tribosphenic molars.
- Autoceta:
crown group cetaceans (whales and dolphins)
- Aves: Archaeopteryx
+ living birds
- Avetheropoda:
Allosaurus + birds
- Aythyini: diving
or bay ducks, scaups, and pochards
- Azemiopinae:
The poorly known Fea's Viper of Tibet
- Azhdarchoidea
X: Quetzalcoatlus and related pterosaurs
-B-
- Balognathidae
X: a group of prionodontidan conodonts
- Bandringidae
X: small ctenacanthiform sharks with hugely elongated
rostra from the Late Carboniferous of North America
- Baphetes
X: a well-known baphetid (proto-temnospondyl) from the Late
Carboniferous of Europe and North America
- Baphetidae
X: a strange group of Late Carboniferous amphibians
with "keyhole" orbits
- Barapasaurus
X: an early, perhaps the earliest, really big sauropod (14-18 m),
sister of the Eusauropoda, from the Early Jurassic of India
- Barbereniidae X:
a probably non-existent group of Late Cretaceous South American
symmetrodonts.
- Barosaurus
X: a big, Late Jurassic African diplodocine sauropod.
- Basilosauridae:
in essence all whales in which the pelvis has lost contact with the spine.
- Basilosaurus
X: a big serpentine whale from the Middle Eocene
- Batomorphii:
modern rays and skates
- Batrachosauria:
Seymouria + Jane Seymour -- amniotes and their close relatives
- Batrachotomus
X: the dominant predator of the Lower Keuper
- Baurusuchidae
X: terrestrial crocs who looked like therapsids, from
the Late Cretaceous of South America
- Beipiaosaurus
X: a feathered therizinosaur from the Early Cretaceous
of China
- Benneviaspidida
X: Early Devonian cornuate osteostracans with particularly elaborate head shields
- Biarmosuchia X:
the most basal therapsids known from well-preserved fossils
- Biarmosuchidae
X: Biarmosuchus, a biarmosuchian of rather light and
open construction
- Bienotherium
X: an Early Jurassic cynodont from China
- Birgeriidae X:
Triassic fish closely related to the sturgeon
- Bishanopliosaurus
X: a poorly known pliosaur from the Early Jurassic of China
- Bocatherium
X: a cynognathian cynodont from the Middle Jurassic of
Mexico
- Boidea: boas and
pythons
- Bolosauridae X:
an odd group of lizard-like anapsids from the Late Permian
- Bolotridon
X: an Early Triassic galesaurid cynodont from South Africa
- Archipelepididae
X: a scale taxon of thelodonts, quite similar to Turinia,
but earlier and with different ornament and very large scale bases, from the
Silurian of Canada.
- Bothremydidae X:
an extinct, mostly Cenozoic, group of mostly Laurasian pleurodire turtles
- Bothriolepidoidei
X: Bothriolepis and closely related antiarch
placoderms of the later Devonian
- Bothriospondylus
X: a large European brachiosaurid sauropod of the Late Jurassic
- Bovoidea:
cattle, sheep goats, etc.
- Brachauchenius
X: a Late Cretaceous pliosaur from North America
- Brachiosauridae
X: sister group to the titanosaurs
- Brachiosaurus
X possibly the largest tetrapod ever
- Brachyopidae
X: late, long-lived family of temnospondyls with short, broad flat
skulls with large eyes situated far forward
- Brachyopoidea X:
the last temnospondyls
- Brachysuchus
X a very large Late Triassic phytosaur
- Bradysaurs X :
large primitive pareiasaurs from the Middle Permian of South Africa
- Brithopodidae
X: a minor family of anteosaurs from the Late Permian of Russia
- Brithopus
X: the standard-bearer of the previous family
- Broomistega
X: a rhinesuchid temnospondyl from the Early Triassic of South Africa
- Bulbulodentata
X: a non-South American stem group of the endemic South African
ungulates
-C-
- Cabonnichthys
X: an odd Australian tristichopterid (osteolepiform) fish from the
Famennian
- Caenophidia:
all derived poisonous snakes and close relatives
- Caeciliidae:
a large group of caecilians, probably paraphyletic
- Californosaurus
X: a medium-large ichthyosaur from the Late Triassic of North America
- Camarasauridae
X: a small family of basal macronarian sauropods
- Camarasaurus
X: a very well known Apatosaur-like sauropod from the Late
Jurassic of North America.
- Camelidae:
camels
- Campylognathoidea
X: an early group of pterosaurs, including Eudimorphodon.
- Canowindridae
X: Late Devoinian Australian osteolepiforms
- Capitosauria
X: large to huge Triassic temnospondyls
- Capitosauridae
X: Late Triassic capitosauroids
- Caprimulgiformes:
nightjars, night hawks, potoos, oilbirds, etc.
- Captorhinidae
X: one of two succesful groups of early (eu)reptiles
- Carcharhiniformes:
typical nasty-looking galeomorph sharks
- Carcharodontosauridae
X: large late Allosaur cousins
- Caridosuctor
X: an actinistian from Bear Gulch
- Carinatae: Ichthyornis
plus living birds.
- Carnosauria
X: Allosaurus and close relatives
- Caseasauria
X: the earliest branch from the synapsid
tree
- Caseidae
X: the first herbivorous synapsids
- Casuariformes:
emus and cassowaries
- Caturoidea
X: Jurassic cousins of Amia
- Cedarosaurus
X: Early Cretaceous brachiosaur from North America
- Centrosaurinae X:
Styracosaurus and close relatives
- Cephalaspidida
X: a group of cornuate osteostracans (jawless fish) from the Early
Devonian of Europe
- Cephalaspidomorphi
X: a term we've recycled to mean Osteostraci + Galeaspida (big
group of jawless fishes)
- Cephalochordata:
amphioxus -- the sister group to Chordata
- Cerapoda X:
hadrosaurs + ceratopsians
- Ceratopsia X:
all Marginocephalia except the pachycephalosaurs
- Ceratopsinae
X: the immediate family of Triceratops
- Ceratosauria
X: coelophysids, abelisaurs and other non-tetanuran
theropod dinosaurs
- Ceresiosaurus
X: a nothosaur from the
Middle Triassic seas of Europe
- Cervoidea:
deer, elk, moose and similar ruminants
- Cetacea:
dolphins > deer -- the whales, dolphins and their older cousins
- Cetartiodactyla:
deer + dolphins
- Cetiosauridae
X: a rather early, unspecialized sauropod from the
Middle & Late Jurassic.
- Chaliminia
X: a very early (Late Triassic) trithelodont
- Chamaeleonidae:
chameleons
- Champsosauridae
X: a long-lived & well-known family of the odd
Choristodera, crocodile analogues
- Charadriiformes:
gulls, auks & relatives.
- Charadriomorphae:
most modern shore birds, pigeons and parrots
- Cheirolepis
X: a Devonian fish, about the most basal form we
know of with approximately "standard" dermal skull bones
- Chelidae: Small to
medium-sized "snake-neck" aquatic turtles of Australia &
South America.
- Chialingosaurus
X: an early Chinese stegosaurid -- more gracile than Stegosaurus
- Chigutisauridae
X: the last temnospondyls (unless frogs are temnospondyls), from as
late as the Jurassic
- Chimaeriformes:
probably
Myriacanthus + Chimaera, living chimaeras and close relatives
- Chimaeroidei:
the crown group of living chimaeras
- Chiroptera:
bats
- Chondrichthyes:
the shark leg of the eugnathostome crown group, hence sharks > lawyers.
- Chondrichthyes
(Crown): chimaeras + living sharks, the crown group of living
chondrichthyans
- Chondrostei:
the sturgeon stem group, caviar > lox.
- Chordata:
everything in Palaeos Vertebrates: urochordates + vertebrates, or
tunicates + tuna.
- Chrysochloroidea:
the "golden moles" of southern Africa.
- Chthomaloporus
X: a poorly known Russian (mid to Late Permian) anteosaur
- Chubutisaurus
X: a South American sauropod from the middle Cretaceous, possibly
sister to the Titanosauria
- Chuchinolepidae
X: basal antiarch placoderms from the Early Devonian of
China
- Chunkingosaurus
X: Late Jurassic Chinese stegosaur
- Cichlidae:
cichlids
- Ciconiidae:
storks
- Ciconiiformes:
storks, herons, egrets, ibis, etc.
- Ciconiimorphae:
most modern shorebirds
- Cimoliasauridae
X: a poorly known family of mostly Cretaceous plesiosaurs
- Cimoliasaurus
X: a plesiosaur from the middle to Late Cretaceous of Australia
- Cimolodonta
X: late-surviving Cretaceous and Paleocene
multituberculates with long snouts and a huge, medial incisor
- Cladistia:
an ancient order of actinopterygian fishes with heavy enameled scales, of
which only the bichirs and reedfish survive
- Cladoselachida
X: a very successful group of Late Devonian sharks with
large pectoral fins, but otherwise rather modern-looking
- Cladotheria:
the clade uniting dryolestoids with therian mammals
- Claudiosaurus
X: a very primitive marine, neodiapsid reptile, from the Late
Permian of Madagascar.
- Clevosaurs
X: the sister group of Sphenodon, mostly
Jurassic
- Climatiiformes X:
the most basal group of acanthodians, from the Late Silurian to Early
Carboniferous.
- Clupeocephala:
the clade uniting the herring - anchovy group with the euteleosts
- Clupeomorpha:
fish in tin cans -- anchovy, herring and sardines.
- Cnemiornis
X: an extinct goose from the Pleistocene & Holocene of New
Zealand
- Coahomasuchus
X: Late Triassic aetosaur, sister to Stagnolepis.
- Cochleosauridae
X: primitive temnospondyls from the Late Carboniferous of Eastern
Europe
- Cochliodontidae
X: a surprisingly modern-looking group of mostly Permian
holocephalians
- Coelurosauravidae
X: very basal Permo-Triassic gliding diapsids of Europe
- Coelurosauria:
all theropods closer to birds than to Allosaurus.
- Coelurus
X: a poorly-known basal coelurosaur from the Late
Jurassic of North America
- Coliiformes:
"mouse birds," good climbers with fluffy feathers
- Colosteidae
X: Carboniferous amphibians, perhaps the sister group to the
temnospondyls
- Colubridae:
rat snakes, corn snakes, king snakes, garter snakes, indigo snakes,
boomslangs, etc.
- Colubroidea:
advanced, venomous snakes
- Columbiformes:
doves, pigeons (e.g. Columba), Raphus (dodo), sand
grouse.
- Colymbosaurus
X: latest and largest of the Plesiosauroidea
known from Jurassic England
- Compsognathidae X: small, light-bodies
predators of the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous.
- Concordia:
X a small, basal captorhinid from the Pennsylvanian of Kansas
- Confuciusornithidae
X: Primitive birds with extraordinarily long wing
feathers and long caudal display plumage
- Conodonta X:
very, very early jaws and teeth of poorly understood design and
relationships.
- Cornuata X: a large &
long-lived group of osteostracan fishes with pointed lateral processes
(cornua) of the head shield
- Corosaurus
X: perhaps the most basal known sauropterygian, from the
Triassic of North America
- Corvaspididae
X: Late Silurian & Early Devonian jawless fishes -- possibly
stem cyathaspids
- Corvaspis
X: the best known corvaspid
- Corveolepis
X: a genus carved out of Corvaspis material
- Cotylosauria:
diadectomorphs + amniotes
- Cracidae:
the colorful curassows,
guans, and chachalacids
- Craniata: hags +
hagfish
- Crassigyrinidae
X: an odd and evil-looking basal tetrapod (or
near-tetrapod) with
diminutive arms
- Crocidurinae:
southern shrews
- Crocodylia:
living crocs > dryosaurs
- Crocodylidae:
crocodiles > alligators
- Crocodyliformes:
crocodiles > Sphenosuchia
- Crocodylinae:
the 12 living species of true crocodiles
- Crocodylomorpha:
roughly speaking, the level at which crocs stopped trying to compete with
dinosaurs
- Crotalinae:
pit vipers
- Crurotarsi:
crocs > dinosaurs
- Cryolophosaurus
X: an Early Jurassic carnosaur from Antarctica (=
"Elvisaurus")
- Cryptocleidoidea
X: late Mesozoic short-necked plesiosaurs
- Cryptoclididae
X: Cryptocleidus and immediate family
- Cryptoclidus
X: an early (Jurassic), successful member of the short-neck plesiosaur
tribe.
- Cryptodira: today,
the predominant turtle breed except in some Gondwanan lands
- Ctenacanthidae
X: the dominant elasmobranch sharks of the Permian and
Carboniferous
- Ctenacanthiformes:
all elasmobranch sharks except the xenacanthids
- Ctenaspis
X: a very peculiar-looking heterosracan jawless fish from the Early
Devonian, probably the sister of all other amphiaspids
- Ctenochasmatoidea
X: pterodactyloids with shallow keels and plantigrade
feet, from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous
- Ctenosquamata: most
Cenozoic teleosts
- Cuculidae: all
cuculiforms except the roadrunner
- Cuculiformes:
cuckoos, the roadrunner, and possibly a few others
- Cyathaspidida
X: streamlined heterostracans with fusiform or cigar-shaped
head-shields made up of two main components, dorsal and ventral epitega
- Cyathaspidiformes
X: the amphiaspid-cyathaspid leg of crown group
Heterostraci, Siluro-Devonian jawless fishes with big, unitary armors
- Cyclosquamata:
deep sea teleosts with non-protrusible, toothed maxillae
- Cylindrophiidae:
pipe snakes
- Cymbospondylus
X: the most primitive of the Ichthyosauria
- Cynodontia:
cynodonts
- Cynognathia X: Cynognathus > Sinocodon,
by our reckoning, the eucynodont branch that didn't lead to mammals
- Cynognathidae X:
a paraphyletic cluster of basal cynognaths
- Cynosaurus
X: a rather obscure Permian cynodont which is, despite the name, a
galesaurid.
- Cypriniformes:
carp, minnows, loaches and others
checked ATW060103