Re: KT fish extinction

[Danvarner@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/4/02 5:49:49 PM Pacific Standard Time, mmcjawa@yahoo.com writes:


<< What groups of fish, fresh or salt water, went extinct or nearly extinct at the KT event?  I have never seen this mentioned, though I have seen lists of losses of just about every other group.  Any good references on this subject? >>

       This is from, _Discovering Fossil Fishes_by John Maisey, Henry Holt Pub. 1996:
       "Many terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates and marine invertebrates became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. Primitive teleosts such as pachycormids became extinct, and ichthyodectids and aspidorhynchids suffered such a dramatic decline that for many years it was believed they, too, had fallen victim to the Late Cretaceous extinction (new fossil discoveries suggest they staggered into the Eocene). Coelocanths disappeared from freshwater and shallow marine environments, along with the last hybodonts and semionotids. On the other hand, many fishes weathered the Cretaceous extinction apparently unscathed, including pycnodontids, reedfishes, chrondrosteans, gars, bowfins, and all the major living groups of teleosts. But although its impact on fish extinction was uneven, the extinction nevertheless prefaced a dramatic increase in the diversity and abundance of teleosts, and a lesser increase among sharks."

       This is an excellent, well-illustrated book, by the way. DV