Aidachar

{{Short description|Extinct genus of ray-finned fishes}} {{Italic title}} {{Automatic taxobox | taxon = Aidachar | fossil_range = Late Cretaceous, {{fossil range|Cenomanian|Turonian}} | image = Aidachar paludalis.jpg | image_caption = Life restoration of ''A. paludalis'' | authority = Nesov, 1981 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = *''A. paludalis'' <small>Nesov, 1981 (type)</small> * ''A. pankowskii'' {{small|(Forey et al. 2007)}} }}

'''''Aidachar''''' (named for Aydahar, a mythical Kazakh dragon) is an extinct genus of freshwater ichthyodectiform ray-finned fish from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian)<ref>{{Cite web |title=PBDB |url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/basicTaxonInfo?taxon_no=249796 |access-date=2024-02-01 |website=paleobiodb.org}}</ref> of Central Asia and North Africa.

The type species is ''A. paludalis'', named by Lev Alexandrovitch Nesov in 1981 from remains discovered in the Bissekty Formation, in what is now the Kyzyl Kum desert of Uzbekistan.<ref name="LAN81">{{cite journal |last=Nesov |first=Lev A. |year=1981 |title=[Flying reptiles from the Late Cretaceous of Kyzyl-Kum] |journal=Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal |volume=15 |pages=98–104 |language=Russian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brinkman |first=Donald B. |last2=Kundrát |first2=Martin |last3=Ward |first3=David J. |last4=Murray |first4=Alison M. |last5=Aimbetov |first5=Izzet K. |last6=Van Loon |first6=Lisa L. |last7=Banerjee |first7=Neil R. |date=2026-02-01 |title=Fish Faunas from the Bissekty Formation (Turonian), Uzbekistan: Insights into biogeographic connectivity and climate-driven Faunal Turnover |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667125001752 |journal=Cretaceous Research |volume=179 |article-number=106252 |doi=10.1016/j.cretres.2025.106252 |issn=0195-6671|doi-access=free }}</ref> 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.<ref name="LAN81" /><ref name="LAN86">{{cite book |last=Nesov |first=Lev A. |year=1986 |chapter=[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] |pages=31–38 |editor=Potapova, R. L. |title=[Ecological and Faunistic Investigations of Birds. Proceedings of the Geological Institute, Leningrad] 147 |language=Russian}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mkhitaryan |first1=T.G. |last2=Averianov |first2=A.O. |date=2011-06-25 |title=New material and phylogenetic position of Aidachar paludalis Nesov, 1981 (Actinopterygii, Ichthyodectiformes) from the Late Cretaceous of Uzbekistan |journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS |volume=315 |issue=2 |pages=181–192 |doi=10.31610/trudyzin/2011.315.2.181 |issn=0206-0477|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cavin |first1=Lionel |last2=Boudad |first2=Larbi |last3=Tong |first3=Haiyan |last4=Läng |first4=Emilie |last5=Tabouelle |first5=Jérôme |last6=Vullo |first6=Romain |date=2015-05-27 |title=Taxonomic Composition and Trophic Structure of the Continental Bony Fish Assemblage from the Early Late Cretaceous of Southeastern Morocco |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=10 |issue=5 |article-number=e0125786 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0125786 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=4446216 |pmid=26018561|bibcode=2015PLoSO..1025786C }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20090106112253/http://archosauria.org/pterosauria/taxonomy/species.pdf The Pterosaur Species List, 3rd Edition (pdf)]. Compiled by Michael Hanson.

Category:Ichthyodectiformes Category:Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Category:Late Cretaceous bony fish Category:Turonian life Category:Late Cretaceous fish of Asia Category:Late Cretaceous fish of Africa Category:Fossils of Uzbekistan Category:Fossils of Morocco Category:Bissekty Formation Category:Fossil taxa described in 1981