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Amia scutata
Taxonomy
Amia scutata was named by Cope (1875). Its type specimen is USNM 5374, a partial skeleton, and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Florissant (USNM Collection), which is in a Chadronian lacustrine - large shale in the Florissant Formation of Colorado.
Sister species lacking formal opinion data
Entered
by M. Carrano on 2009-07-15; modified by D. Sinopoli on 2026-05-08
Synonyms
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Synonymy list
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If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.
Diagnosis
| Reference | Diagnosis | |
|---|---|---|
| E. D. Cope 1875 | Represented by a specimen which lacks the head and body anterior to the middle of the long dorsal fin. The anal and part of the dorsal fin and the heterocercal tail are well displayed. The species differs from the existing Amia calva, L. and its contemporary A. reticulata, in the large size of its scales, of which only seven and a half longitudinal rows are visible above the vertebral column. The radii of the anal fin number nine, and the caudal vertebrae forty-six, with, perhaps, one or two missing from the specimen. The ray bearing caudal haemapophyses number twelve. | |
| E. D. Cope 1875 (Amia dictyocephala) | Established on a number of specimens, but primarily on one in which the caudal and interior fins are wanting, and only the posterior part of the skull remains. A second consists of the entire cranium; a third, of the tail; and a fourth, of a specimen in good condition, lacking head and tail. The first-mentioned specimen shows that there are ten or twelve rows of scales above the vertebrae, and that the dorsal fin commences about an inch behind the line of the posterior border of the cranium. It also exhibits the strong sculpture of the surfaces of the latter to consist of narrow insoculating ridges, inclosing larger and smaller pit areas.
The specimen exhibits this sculpture to be very marked on the opercular, suborbital, parietal, frontal, and sublingual bones, the only ones where it displays the suraface. The branchiostegal radii number twelve, the upper large and wide. The subopercular is turned up anteriorly as in A. calva, and is thickened on the border of the suture with the interoperculum. The sublingual bone has much the form of that of A. calva, but is rather wider and there more abruptly contracted than in a specimen of the latter before me. The orbit is smaller relatively than in A. calva. It is uncertain whether this and the preceding species [Amia scutata] possessed the dentition of Amia or Pappichthys Cope, as the mandibular bone is partially broken away on the inner side. Some of the teeth are of small size and abruptly contracted near the apex, so they may belong to the inner row of the true Amia, which is wanting in Pappichthys. The fourth specimen displays the ventral fins and the characteristic femoral supports. The fins originate about an inch behind the line of the origin of the dorsal fin in a specimen of 0.055 meters depth of body. The scales exhibit also the dermal margin with truncate posterior outline seen in the existing species; this character is chiefly seen on the abdominal surfaces. There are thirty-five vertebrae between vertical lines drawn from the beginning of the dorsal fin and end of the basis of the anal fin; and thirty-two dorsal radii in the same interval; anal radii nine; ventrals six. |