Kenyaichthys

Kenyaichthys is an extinct genus of aplocheiloid killifish from the upper Miocene Lukeino Formation in the Tugen Hills of the Central Rift Valley of Kenya, which represent the first fossil record of an aplocheiloidei. A total of 169 specimens are mostly well-preserved.^[1]

Kenyaichthys is considered to be distinctive enough to be placed in its own family of its own, the Kenyaichthyidae. This family is placed within the suborder Aplocheiloidei, where it is considered to be more closely related to the Rivulidae (found only in South America) than the Nothobranchiidae and Aplocheilidae, which are both found in Africa today.^[2]

Given the huge diversity of the Cyprinodontiformes, their fossil record is relatively poor and is limited in the Cyprinodontoidei. No fossil genus of the Aplocheiloidei had been described yet.^[1]

Bettina Reichenbacher and Melanie Altner had identified the first fossil genus of one of the two extant suborders of killifish, the Aplocheiloidei. "The specimens are exceptionally well preserved, date from about 6 million years ago, and were discovered in Kenya by French palaeoanthropologists," says Reichenbacher. "Our studies have now shown that they are members of a previously unknown genus that is now extinct, which we have named Kenyaichthys – the fish from Kenya''.^[3]

''Kenyaichthys'' means Kenyan Fish and ''kipkechi'' honours Joseph Kipkech for his ''long-time devoted commitment to the development of education and science in Baringo County''.^[2]

• Karpinskiprion
• Pshekhagnathus

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Altner, Melanie; Reichenbacher, Bettina (2015-04-29). "†Kenyaichthyidae fam. nov. and †Kenyaichthys gen. nov. – First Record of a Fossil Aplocheiloid Killifish (Teleostei, Cyprinodontiformes)". PLOS ONE. 10 (4): e0123056.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "Fossil Killifish from the Late Miocene of Kenya's Rift Valley". 2015-05-01.
3. ↑ "Unique fish fossils identified". Phys.org.