Aidachar (named for Aydahar, a mythical Kazakh dragon) is an extinct genus of marine ichthyodectiform ray-finned fish from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian)[1] of Central Asia and North Africa.

Aidachar
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Cenomanian–Turonian
Life restoration of A. paludalis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Ichthyodectiformes
Family: Cladocyclidae
Genus: Aidachar
Nesov, 1981
Species
  • A. paludalis Nesov, 1981 (type)
  • A. pankowskii (Forey et al. 2007)

The type species is A. paludalis, named by Lev Nesov in 1981 from remains discovered in the Kyzyl Kum desert of Uzbekistan.[2] At first, he tentatively described the fossil material as the jaw fragments of a ctenochasmatid pterosaur (a flying reptile), but reinterpreted Aidachar as a fish in 1986.[2][3] The second species, A. pankowskii, is described from Kem Kem Group of Morocco and reclassified from the genus Cladocyclus, to which it is thought to be closely related.[4][5]

References

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  1. ^ "PBDB". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
  2. ^ a b Nesov, Lev A. (1981). "[Flying reptiles from the Late Cretaceous of Kyzyl-Kum]". Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal (in Russian). 15: 98–104.
  3. ^ Nesov, Lev A. (1986). "[The first finding of the Late Cretaceous bird Ichthyornis in the old world and some other bird bones from the Cretaceous and Paleogene of Middle Asia]". In Potapova, R. L. (ed.). [Ecological and Faunistic Investigations of Birds. Proceedings of the Geological Institute, Leningrad] 147 (in Russian). pp. 31–38.
  4. ^ Mkhitaryan, T.G.; Averianov, A.O. (2011-06-25). "New material and phylogenetic position of Aidachar paludalis Nesov, 1981 (Actinopterygii, Ichthyodectiformes) from the Late Cretaceous of Uzbekistan". Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS. 315 (2): 181–192. doi:10.31610/trudyzin/2011.315.2.181. ISSN 0206-0477.
  5. ^ Cavin, Lionel; Boudad, Larbi; Tong, Haiyan; Läng, Emilie; Tabouelle, Jérôme; Vullo, Romain (2015-05-27). "Taxonomic Composition and Trophic Structure of the Continental Bony Fish Assemblage from the Early Late Cretaceous of Southeastern Morocco". PLOS ONE. 10 (5): e0125786. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1025786C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125786. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4446216. PMID 26018561.
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