Description

Upper Oligocene
Menilite Formation
Outer Carpathians, Krepac, Poland
25mm deep water fish on 92mm slab
Fish,

Argyropelecus is a genus of marine hatchetfish of the Family Sternopthychidae. This may be the earliest fossil occurrence of the genus – also known from the Miocene of California. Today, species of this genus frequent warm to temperate waters.

The article noted below reviews a fish fauna from a number of sites in Poland and the deepwater hatchetfish species, A. cosmovicii, is discussed in detail.

Jerzmanska, A. (1968). Ichthyofaune des couches à ménilite (Flysch des Karpathes). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 13, 379-481. 

A fine example of this deep-bodied fish.