Mesomyzon
Sign in to saveMesomyzon is an extinct lamprey genus from freshwater strata of the Early Cretaceous (Barremian–Aptian age) Yixian Formation of China. It contains a single species, M. mengae.
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Mesomyzon is an extinct lamprey genus from freshwater strata of the Early Cretaceous (Barremian–Aptian age) Yixian Formation of China. It contains a single species, M. mengae.
The animal's exquisitely preserved fossils show a creature very similar to modern-day lampreys, having a well-developed sucking oral disk, a branchial basket, at least seven pairs of gill pouches and corresponding gill arches, impressions of gill filaments, and at least 80 myomeres of its musculature. It had the same three-phase life cycle found in modern lampreys.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mesomyzon” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.