Alright, I’m not expecting to get what I need here, but I figure I’d try nonetheless. Never underestimate the power of the Dopers. So basically, my plight is this: I’m trying to find any information I can find on a fish called Australichtys longidorsalis. And yes, I’m fairly certain that’s the correct spelling, though I could be wrong. I’ve tried several extensive searches on the internet with no luck. I’ve gotten plenty of hits for a couple other fish with the longidorsalis species name, but they weren’t australichtys. If anyone knows any information on this fish, or any other sources I can try, I’ll be very grateful. The information I’m looking for in particular is its size/shape, location, and time period (I’m pretty sure it’s extinct).
From the results of my search, I’d say that being “fairly certain” of the spelling is not good enough. Double check the spelling, then maybe dig around this site for a bibliography or an email address.
My guess is the spelling should be Australichthys, though no hits show up on Google for that either. Check your spelling and try some variants. The proper ending meaning “fish” should be either ichthys or ichthus.
I remember thinking the same thing about the spelling when I copied it down from the book. I guess that was a typo. But I still haven’t gotten any hits at all, even when I search under just longidorsalis I don’t get anything close to what I’m looking for.
I would guess that Australichtys is no longer used by the species you suggested. Or maybe Australicthys got moved to one of the intermediate titles like subfamily. That kind of stuff happens a lot for new species from long ago. I’d say we need to know more about where you found the reference to this fish. AllI can say was that it’s a ray-finned fish who probably lived around 360 mya.
There are many paleoniscid fishes so obscure they may not be listed anywhere on the net that a search engine can go. Please give us some context for this reference and we may be able to help.
Well I’ve turned up lots of fish species ending in longidorsalis too, with Cyprinus longidorsalis being the most common. Nothing on the genera “Australichtys” though, but I’m pretty sure that’s just a typo. There is a genera called “Osteochilichthys”, which if you pronouce it sounds pretty close to your word. There is a fish called Osteochilichthys longidorsalis, from India. I didn’t find much on the web about it, but here
are the pages I found. If that’s the wrong one and what you want really is extinct, perhaps an idea of what classification this fish may have been in would help to narrow it down.