{{Short description|Extinct genus of fishes}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = {{fossilrange|33.9|30|Early Oligocene<ref name="sepkoskidb">{{cite journal|last=Sepkoski |first=Jack |title=A compendium of fossil marine animal genera |journal=Bulletins of American Paleontology |volume=364 |page=560 |year=2002 |url=http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class |accessdate=2009-02-27 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723131237/http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class |archivedate=2011-07-23 }}</ref>}} | image = Balistomorphus ovalis.jpg | image_caption = Restoration of ''B. ovalis'' | taxon = Balistomorphus | authority = Gill, 1888 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = * ''B. orbiculatus'' <small>(Heer, 1865)</small> * ''B. ovalis'' <small>(Agassiz, 1842)</small> * ''B. spinosus'' <small>(Agassiz, 1842)</small> | synonyms = * {{extinct}}''Acanthoderma'' <small>Agassiz, 1842</small> }}
'''''Balistomorphus''''' is an extinct genus of prehistoric triggerfish during the early Oligocene epoch in what is now Canton Glarus, Switzerland, where fossils are known from the Matt Formation. It inhabited the marine environment of the Paratethys.<ref name="sepkoskidb"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=PBDB |url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/basicTaxonInfo?taxon_no=36286 |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=paleobiodb.org}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Bannikov |first1=A. F. |last2=Tyler |first2=J. C. |date=2008-10-01 |title=A new genus and species of triggerfish from the Middle Eocene of the Northern Caucasus, the earliest member of the Balistidae (Tetraodontiformes) |url=https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030108060075 |journal=Paleontological Journal |language=en |volume=42 |issue=6 |pages=615–620 |doi=10.1134/S0031030108060075 |bibcode=2008PalJ...42..615B |issn=1555-6174|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=McCord |first1=Charlene L. |last2=Westneat |first2=Mark W. |date=2016-01-01 |title=Phylogenetic relationships and the evolution of BMP4 in triggerfishes and filefishes (Balistoidea) |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |volume=94 |issue=Pt A |pages=397–409 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2015.09.014 |issn=1055-7903|doi-access=free |pmid=26408967 |bibcode=2016MolPE..94..397M }}</ref> [[File:FOS519A.jpg|left|thumb|198x198px|Fossil of ''B. ovalis'', <bdi>Natural History Museum of Neuchâtel</bdi>]] thumb|Fossil of ''B.'' cf. ''spinosus'', Natural History Museum of Neuchatel The following species are known. All were formerly placed in the preoccupied genus ''Acanthoderma'':<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Geology |first1=British Museum (Natural History) Department of |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtEKAQAAIAAJ |title=Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History): Actinopterygian Teleostomi of the suborders Isospondyli (in part), Ostariophysi, Apodes, Percesoces, Hemibranchii, Acanthopterygii, and Anacanthini |last2=Woodward |first2=Arthur Smith |date=1901 |publisher=order of the Trustees |language=en}}</ref>
* '''''B. orbiculatus''''' <small>(Heer, 1865)</small> * '''''B. ovalis''''' <small>(Agassiz, 1842)</small> * '''''B. spinosus''''' <small>(Agassiz, 1842)</small> Woodward (1901) considered all species synonymous with ''B. spinosus'', but later studies have retained them all as distinct.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />
==See also== {{Portal|Paleontology|Fish}} * Prehistoric fish * List of prehistoric bony fish
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q4851012}} Category:Prehistoric percomorph genera †
{{paleo-tetraodontiformes-stub}} Category:Oligocene fish of Europe Category:Fossils of Switzerland Category:Fossil taxa described in 1888 Category:Taxa named by Theodore Gill