Written by Jeanne Rife on 09 Feb 2016 – NH Voice

A team comprised of researchers from different countries has claimed that fossil remains of two fish species that lived more than 90 million years ago have been discovered. The plankton-eating fish species belonged to genus called Rhinconichthys.

Rhinconichthys is extremely rare genus, and there is only species in the world that belong to the genus, said Kenshu Shimada, an author of the new research and a paleobiologist from the DePaul University. Previously, the only known species to the Rhinconichthys genus was found in England, Shimada added.

One of the new fish’s remains have been discovered in Colorado, while the second’s skull was claimed to be found in Japan. The discovery shows that England is not the only place holding species of Rhinconichthys genus, and it was with a greatly expanded geographical range.

The newly discovered two giant mouthed fish species, which lived when dinosaurs roamed the earth, have been named R. purgatoirensis and R. uyenoi, according to Shimada, who played major role in the study.

“I was in a team that named Rhinconichthys in 2010, which was based on a single species from England, but we had no idea back then that the genus was so diverse and so… read more here