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Extinct genus of fishes

Balistomorphus

Balistomorphus

Key facts

instance offossil taxon
taxon nameBalistomorphus
taxon rankgenus
Fossil of B. ovalis, Natural History Museum of Neuchâtel
Fossil of B. ovalis, Natural History Museum of Neuchâtel
Fossil of B. cf. spinosus, Natural History Museum of Neuchatel
Fossil of B. cf. spinosus, Natural History Museum of Neuchatel
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Balistomorphus is an extinct genus of prehistoric triggerfish during the early Oligocene epoch in what is now Canton Glarus, Switzerland, where fossils are known from the Matt Formation. It inhabited the marine environment of the Paratethys.

The following species are known. All were formerly placed in the preoccupied genus Acanthoderma:

  • B. orbiculatus (Heer, 1865)
  • B. ovalis (Agassiz, 1842)
  • B. spinosus (Agassiz, 1842)

Woodward (1901) considered all species synonymous with B. spinosus, but later studies have retained them all as distinct.

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