Pipiscius

Pipiscius Temporal range: Moscovian (Middle) Pennsylvanian Epoch, Carboniferous Period
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Infraphylum:	Agnatha
Class:	Petromyzontida
Order:	Petromyzontiformes
Genus:	†Pipiscius Bardack & Richardson, 1977
Species:	†P. zangerli
Binomial name
†Pipiscius zangerli Bardack & Richardson, 1977

Pipiscius is an extinct genus of lamprey that lived about 300 million years ago, during the Middle Pennsylvanian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period. The genus contains a single species, P. zangerli, known from the Mazon Creek fossil beds located in present-day Illinois.^[1]

It has a distinctive crown-like mouth comprising a ring of radially arranged teeth.^[2] However, some specimens assigned to the coeval lamprey Mayomyzon, also found in the Mazon Creek beds, also have similar mouthparts. Since Pipiscius does not have many any other defining features, it has been suggested that the two genera are synonymous, with the name Mayomyzon having priority. ^[3]

See also

• Paleozoic jawless fish
• Prehistoric jawless fish genera

References

1. Bardack, David.; Richardson, Eugene Stanley (1977). "New agnathous fishes from the Pennsylvanian of Illinois". Fieldiana. 3 (26). Field Museum of Natural History: 489–510. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.5167.
2. Shu, D.; Conway Morris, S.; Zhang, X-L.; Chen, L.; Li, Y.; Han, J. (1999). "A pipiscid-like fossil from the Lower Cambrian of south China". Nature. 400 (6746): 746. Bibcode:1999Natur.400..746S. doi:10.1038/23445. S2CID 204995356.
3. Gabbott, Sarah E.; Sansom, Robert S.; Purnell, Mark A. (2021-08-24). Lomax, Barry (ed.). "Systematic analysis of exceptionally preserved fossils: correlated patterns of decay and preservation". Palaeontology. 64 (6): 789–803. doi:10.1111/pala.12571. ISSN 0031-0239.