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AMIIFORMES

Amiiforms

Os amiiformes são peixes de aspecto primitivo, que surgiram há cerca de 150 milhões de anos e sobrevivem aos tempos atuais representados por uma única espécie - a âmia, que habita os territórios pantanosos do leste da América do Norte. No passado distribuíam-se por rios e lagos de quase todos os continentes, além das águas rasas nas zonas costeiras. Indícios fósseis indicam que, tal como a âmia contemporânea, as espécies extintas eram predadoras vorazes: nos depósitos sedimentares do nordeste do Brasil são frequentemente encontrados registros flagrantes de amiiformes mortos ao tentar deglutir presas maiores do que suas próprias gargantas.  

Amiiforms are primitive-like fishes that emerged 150 million years ago and survived today represented by a single species - the bowfin, from the marshy areas of eastern North America. In the past they could be found along rivers and lakes of almost every continent, as well as the shallow waters of coastal zones. Fossil evidence indicates that, like modern bowfins, extinct species were voracious predators: along the sedimentary deposits of northeastern Brazil flagrant "scenes" of amiiforms killed trying to swallow prey larger than their own throats are found often.

Cratoamia gondwanica
Calamopleurus cylindricus
Calamopleurus mawsoni

BARTON, M. 2006. Bond’s Biology of Fishes (3ed.). New York: Thomson Brooks, 912p.

 

BENTON, M. J. 1998. The quality of the fossil record of vertebrates. In: Donovan, S.K.; Paul, C.R.C. (orgs.) The adequacy of the fossil record. New York: Wiley, p.269-303.

 

BENTON, M.J. 2005. Vertebrate Palaeontology (3ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 455p.

 

BRITO, P.M.; YABUMOTO, Y.; GRANDE, L. 2008. New Amiid Fish (Halecomorphi: Amiiformes) from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation, Araripe Basin, Northeast Brazil. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Bethesda: SVP, 28 (4): p.1007-1014.

 

BOND, E.C. 1996. Biology of Fishes (2ed.). Orlando: Saunders College Publisher, 750p.

 

FOREY, P.L.; GRANDE, L. 1998. An African twin to the Brazilian Calamopleurus (Actinopterygii: Amiidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. London: The Linnean Society, 123 (2): p.179–195. 

 

MAISEY, J.G. 1991. Santana Fossils: An Illustrated Atlas. Neptune City: T.F.H. Publications, 459p. 

 

MAISEY, J.G. 1996. Discovering Fossil Fishes. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 223p.

 

NELSON, J.S. 2006. Fishes of the World (4ed.). New York: Wiley, 624p.

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