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Triassic ‘flying fish’, like Potanichthys, did not ‘fly’ according to the LRT

Friday, November 25, 2022 13:09

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In birds, bats, most pterosaurs
(sans bottom-decker tapejarids) and flying fish (Figs 1, 2) the wings and homologous pectoral fins are raised to the dorsal half of the torso (Figs 2, 3) by a taller coracoid or its equivalent (e.g. the clavicle in bats).

Figure 1. Flying fish (Exocoetus volitans) line drawing. Note the elevated insertion of the pectoral fins. This expands the size of the pectoral muscles. Despite this, flying fish do not flap when they fly.

That’s not the case with the several so-called flying fish of the Triassic
like Thoracopterus (Fig 3) and Potanichthys (Fig 3). Instead, the oversized pectoral fins were anchored low on the torso (Fig 1), more like the extant flying gurnard, Dactylopterus (Fig 1).

Figure 2. Exocoetus skull and pectoral girdle. Note the high placement of the pectoral fins on this fish capable of gliding, but not flapping in the air.

Recent housekeeping
in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2173 taxa) now nests Dactylopterus with Thoracopterus and Potanicthys. Everyone agrees that the latter two were not related to extant flying fish, but apparently no published materials have linked these three taxa together phylogenetically.

YouTube video of Dactylopterus walking on its pelvic fins (making it an underwater biped!) and spreading its pectoral fins as a bottom-dwller, not a flying fish. Colorful patterns like this are not found on the wings of flying fish, suggesting a decorative or flash signal use for these oversize pectoral fins.

And if you’re curious about the origin of flying fish…
in the LRT flying fish (Exocoetus) evolved from jacks (Seriola, Fig 4).

Figure 4. Seriola and Exocoetus to scale.

Xu and Zhao 2015
discussed the origin of the Thoracopteridae (Fig 5). These authors also found Peltopleurus in the lineage of Triassic fish with over-sized pectoral fins.

Figure 5. From Xu and Zhao 2015, rotated and colors added here. Peltopleurus nests here in the ancestry of Triassic fish with over-sized wings.

Otherwise, these appear to be novel hypotheses of interrelationships.
If not, please provide a citation so I can promote it here.

References
Xu G-H and Zhao L-J 2015. From Potanichthys to Wushaichthys: resolvingthe evolutionary origin and reproductive strategy of the Thoracopteridae: a reply to Tintori (2015). Biol. Lett. 11: 20150604. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0604

Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2022/11/26/triassic-flying-fish-like-potanichthys-did-not-fly-according-to-the-lrt/

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