Babelichthys
Babelichthys is an extinct genus of crestfish from the ?Late Eocene-aged[1] Pabdeh Formation of Western Iran. It contains a single species, Babelichthys olneyi.[2] The type specimen was initially figured by Camille Arambourg as a second, poorly-preserved specimen of the co-occurring crestfish Protolophotus, but in 2017 it was identified as its own distinct taxon.[2][3] The single known specimen consists of a head and the front-most region of the dorsal fin, preserving the extremely elongated and enlarged first dorsal-fin ray. It has been inferred that Babelichthys had a highly elongated "crest" at the front of its dorsal fin that projected horizontally forwards like a horn, akin to that of the extant unicorn crestfish (Eumecichthys fiski) but even larger and more elongated.[2] It and the unicorn crestfish are each other's closest known relatives.[2] However, some studies find Lophotidae to be paraphyletic, and place Babelichthys as an indeterminate taeniosome.[4] Scale bar = 10 mm EtymologyThe genus name Babelichthys literally translates to “Babel fish” in Greek, named after the teleost-like, ear-dwelling, polyglot extraterrestrial species from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, as a reference to the very peculiar, almost alien-like, appearance of the genus. The species name "olneyi" is named after John E. Olney for his work on the anatomy and ontogeny of Lampriformes.[2] References
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