{{Short description|Extinct genus of fishes}} {{Speciesbox | fossil_range = {{fossilrange|95|93.5|Upper Cenomanian<ref name="sepkoskidb">{{cite journal|last=Sepkoski |first=Jack |title=A compendium of fossil marine animal genera |journal=Bulletins of American Paleontology |volume=363 |pages=1–560 |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 = Enchelion montium.jpg | image_caption = Fossil specimen | taxon = Enchelion montium | grandparent_authority = Hay, 1903 | parent_authority = Hay, 1903 | authority = Hay, 1903 }}
'''''Enchelion''''' (Greek for "little eel") is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It contains a single species, '''''E. montium''''' known from the upper Cenomanian of the Haqel locality of the Sannine Formation in Lebanon.<ref name="sepkoskidb"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hay |first=Oliver Perry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LqTK9yGcNREC |title=On Certain Genera and Species of North American Cretaceous Actinopterous Fishes |date=1903 |publisher=order of the Trustees, American Museum of Natural History |language=en}}</ref> It is the only member of the family '''Encheliidae'''''.''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laan |first=Richard van der |date=2018-10-11 |title=Family-group names of fossil fishes |url=https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/view/597 |journal=European Journal of Taxonomy |language=en |issue=466 |doi=10.5852/ejt.2018.466 |issn=2118-9773|doi-access=free }}</ref> left|thumb|Specimen of ''Enchelion'' sp. [[File:Eurypholis and Enchelion.jpg|thumb|Specimen with ''Eurypholis'']] It has a small but extremely elongate appearance reminiscent of an eel, but its taxonomic affinities are uncertain, making it hard to classify. It has a unique diplospondylous (two vertebrae in each segment) vertebral column that is unseen in any modern teleost fish aside from the contemporaneous, enigmatic freshwater ''Diplospondichthys'' from the Kem Kem Beds in Morocco. Uniquely, it also has no evidence of fins or fin rays, a trait shared with ''Diplospondichthys''; however, these two genera differ in jaw morphology.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Filleul |first1=Arnaud |last2=Dutheil |first2=Didier B. |date=2004-06-11 |title=A peculiar diplospondylous actinopterygian fish from the Cretaceous of Morocco |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1671/3004 |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=290–298 |doi=10.1671/3004 |bibcode=2004JVPal..24..290F |issn=0272-4634|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Espíndola |first=Vinícius Corrêa |title=Phylogenetic relationship of the Anguilliformes (Teleostei: Elopomorpha) with an emphasis in cephalic morphology |date=2019-08-28 |degree=text |publisher=Universidade de São Paulo |url=https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/38/38131/tde-05122019-103045/en.php |language=en}}</ref> Some authors have suggested it may represent the earliest known representative of the Saccopharyngoidei, but this is disputed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Belouze |first=Anne |date=2002 |title=Compréhension morphologique et phylogénétique des taxons actuels et fossiles rapportés aux anguilliformes («poissons», téléostéens) |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/geoly_0750-6635_2002_mon_158_1 |journal=Travaux et Documents des Laboratoires de Géologie de Lyon |volume=158 |issue=1 |pages=3–401}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Belouze |first1=Anne |last2=Gayet |first2=Mireille |last3=Atallah |first3=Claude |date=2003-07-01 |title=Les premiers Anguilliformes : II. Paraphylie du genre Urenchelys WOODWARD, 1900 et relations phylogénétiques |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016699503000366 |journal=Geobios |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=351–378 |doi=10.1016/S0016-6995(03)00036-6 |bibcode=2003Geobi..36..351B |issn=0016-6995|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pfaff |first1=Cathrin |last2=Zorzin |first2=Roberto |last3=Kriwet |first3=Jürgen |date=2016-08-11 |title=Evolution of the locomotory system in eels (Teleostei: Elopomorpha) |journal=BMC Evolutionary Biology |language=en |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=159 |doi=10.1186/s12862-016-0728-7 |doi-access=free |issn=1471-2148 |pmc=4981956 |pmid=27514517|bibcode=2016BMCEE..16..159P }}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Paleontology|Fish}} * Prehistoric fish * List of prehistoric bony fish
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q5375411}}
{{paleo-rayfinned-fish-stub}} {{Cretaceous-fish-stub}} {{Anguilliformes-stub}} Category:Monotypic prehistoric ray-finned fish genera † Category:Late Cretaceous fish of Asia Category:Cenomanian genera Category:Late Cretaceous bony fish Category:Fossils of Lebanon Category:Fossil taxa described in 1903 Category:Taxa named by Oliver Perry Hay