Horaclupea

{{Short description|Extinct species of ray-finned fish}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = {{fossil range|Early Eocene}} | taxon = Horaclupea | authority = Borkar, 1973 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = * †''H. geei'' (Hora, 1937) * †''H. intertrappea'' Borkar, 1973 | synonyms = * ''Clupea geei'' Hora, 1937 }}

'''''Horaclupea''''' is an extinct genus of freshwater and estuarine ray-finned fish that inhabited the Indian subcontinent during the early Eocene. It was a clupeoid, making it related to modern herrings and anchovies. It was named after Indian ichthyologist Sunder Lal Hora, who described the first species of the genus.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Borkar |first=V. D. |date=1973 |title=Fossil Fishes from the Inter-Trappean Beds of Surendranagar District, Saurashtra |url=https://www.ias.ac.in/public/Volumes/secb/078/04/0181-0193.pdf |journal=Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences |volume=78 |issue=4 |pages=181–193 |doi=10.1007/BF03045500 |via=}}</ref>

It contains two species:

* †''H. geei'' (Hora, 1937) - early Eocene of the Salt Range in Kohat District, Pakistan (syn: ''Clupea geei'' Hora, 1937)<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Hora |first=Sunder Lal |date=1937 |title=Fossil Fish-Remains from the Saline Series of North-Western India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4PMdAQAAMAAJ |journal=Records of the Geological Survey of India |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=188–194}}</ref> * †''H. intertrappea'' Borkar, 1973 - early Eocene of the Intertrappean Beds near Bamanbore, India<ref name=":0" />

''H. geei'' was initially described as ''Clupea geei'' from multiple specimens, one relatively complete, in an Eocene estuarine fossil fish assemblage discovered near Malgin in Kohat District, Pakistan.<ref name=":1" /> ''H. intertrappea'' was described in the new genus ''Horaclupea'' from several articulated specimens from freshwater sediments in the Intertrappean Beds of India.<ref name=":0" /> These formations were initially dated to the Late Paleocene or early Eocene,<ref name=":0" /> and were later re-dated as Cretaceous or earliest Paleocene.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Arratia |first1=G |title=Late Cretaceous-Paleocene percomorphs (Teleostei) from India - Early radiation of Perciformes |date=2004 |work=Recent advances in the origin and early radiation of vertebrates |pages=635–655 |editor-last=Arratia |editor-first=G |url=https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/66411477/Late_Cretaceous-Paleocene_percomorphs_T20210421-27083-hty70d.pdf?1619007513=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DLate_Cretaceous_Paleocene_percomorphs_Te.pdf&Expires=1712906509&Signature=gSbo6nM8E0NTQTEj5C~vCcmhteLbjGJNPpRtM9ZUi6EJJ24u8OBms2CxBJGV2yvorr0KmH7To4Sl3jc46ncAlZCN-e6VKb1D7~43WkvJ4ueVvksDYjYshUL99pz4-fwCvVmcSv-N6vc7uSa7o78AlPhDUMxnXkLYcmOOmqfUxR7BLXj2oJ9r0wEf-HPrtuEjGUHP5jXVtXjKuCLa2lZUkF6~iyNa0-4Tryu6A2xWPNQDh-7n7voymoLOzSmOwcV1ajfAVvKyCOH82KhhBiQ1fp2z7B82EMHrvzfZIWapKs~pdvIGSE7m3cY0c5HnIH9lXG599lU4mUNvtpn~aknBLA__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA |access-date=2024-04-12 |publisher=Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, München, Germany |isbn=978-3-89937-052-2 |last2=López-Arbarello |first2=A |last3=Prasad |first3=GVR |last4=Parnar |first4=V |last5=Kriwet |first5=J |editor2-last=Wilson |editor2-first=MVH |editor3-last=Cloutier |editor3-first=R}}</ref> However, more recent studies using palynostratigrapy have confirmed that the Bamanbore deposits are Early Eocene in age.<ref name=":20">{{Cite journal |last=Shah |first=Nishi H. |last2=Patel |first2=Satish J. |date=2024-12-01 |title=A new superfamily of freshwater mussels Deccanoidea nov. (Mollusca: Unionida) from an intertrappean deposit of Saurashtra province (Gujarat state, western India): An example of disjunct distribution |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/05529360241269345 |journal=Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India |language=en |volume=69 |issue=2 |pages=121–146 |doi=10.1177/05529360241269345 |issn=0552-9360|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The abundance of ''H. geei'' in estuarine sediments, in addition to the occurrence of ''H. intertrappea'' in freshwater sediments, suggests that ''Horaclupea'' may have been an anadromous taxon that migrated up rivers to breed and schooled in large shoals. It was initially suggested that ''H. geei'' may represent the young stage of a hilsa-like clupeid, but the lack of any adult specimens in the Kohat assemblage, as well as the presence of similar individuals in the Intertrappean Beds, indicates that it may just represent a small-sized clupeid species.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

It was described as being potentially related to ''Diplomystus<ref name=":0" />'', but that taxon has since been classified into a different order (Ellimmichthyiformes). However, recent taxonomic reviews have retained ''Horaclupea'' as an indeterminate clupeid.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lavoué |first1=Sébastien |last2=Miya |first2=Masaki |last3=Musikasinthorn |first3=Prachya |last4=Chen |first4=Wei-Jen |last5=Nishida |first5=Mutsumi |date=2013 |title=Mitogenomic Evidence for an Indo-West Pacific Origin of the Clupeoidei (Teleostei: Clupeiformes) |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=8 |issue=2 |article-number=e56485 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0056485 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=3576394 |pmid=23431379|bibcode=2013PLoSO...856485L }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=A new clupeid fish from the upper Miocene of Greece: A possible Hilsa relative from the Mediterranean - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica |url=https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app66/app008712020.pdf |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=www.app.pan.pl |language=en}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

† Category:Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Category:Eocene fish of Asia Category:Ypresian genera Category:Fossils of India Category:Fossils of Pakistan Category:Fossil taxa described in 1973