Mene

Mene

The moonfish of the genus Mene , the sole extant genus of the family Menidae are disk-shaped fish which bear a vague resemblance to gourami, thanks to their thread-like pelvic fins...

 purdyi was a perciform fish found off the Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

vian coast of the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 during the Late Paleocene

Paleocene

The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the "early recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from about . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era...

. It is one of the earlier members of its genus. M. purdyi is currently known only from a single skull. It is among the largest, if not the largest, members of the genus, also, as the skull suggests that it would have been 40 centimeters in life. The living species, M. maculata, by comparison, grows to an average length of 18 centimeters.

External links

• "A new species of Mene (Perciformes: Menidae) from the Paleocene of South America, with notes on paleoenvironment and a brief review of menid fishes." http://home.uchicago.edu/~mattf/Friedman_Johnson_2005.pdf