Echelus
Genus of fishes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Echelus is a genus of eels in the snake-eel family Ophichthidae. Fossils belonging to this genus date back to the Early Eocene.[2]
| Echelus Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| |
| Echelus pachyrhynchus | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Anguilliformes |
| Family: | Ophichthidae |
| Subfamily: | Ophichthinae |
| Genus: | Echelus Rafinesque, 1810 |
| Type species | |
| Echelus punctatus Rafinesque, 1810[1] | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Species
There are currently 4 recognized species in this genus:
- Echelus myrus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Painted eel)
- Echelus pachyrhynchus (Vaillant, 1888)
- Echelus polyspondylus J. E. McCosker & H. C. Ho, 2015 (Many-vertebrae snake eel) [3]
- Echelus uropterus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846) (Finned snake eel)
The following fossil species are also known:[2]
- †Echelus arcuatus Radwanska, 1984 - Middle Miocene of Poland [otolith]
- †Echelus branchialis (Woodward, 1901) - Early Eocene of England
- †Echelus contractus Stinton, 1975 - Middle Eocene of England [otolith]
- †Echelus dolloi (Storms, 1896) - Middle Eocene of Belgium (=Eomyrus)
