My 'Ancient Fishes' figures

After my recent posts of all (almost) of the Yujin Freshwater fish ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]) I was asked to put up a photo of all of my Arowana figures at once. But rather than just be simple about it, I decided to do group photos of all of the ‘primitive’ bony fishes in my collection. As much because it's fun, and I don't really get to interact with the animals on the shelves very often.

The ‘primitive’ fishes is a pretty arbitrary term, but usually means fish that are part of clades that have roots far back in geologic history, mostly before the rise of the majority of modern fish. The orders included are discussed in a book called Jurassic Fishes (an aquarium husbandry book originally from Japan) as well as the Primitive Fishes blog/Facebook page/Twitter account which happen to include the same groups.

These fish tend to have primitive characteristics somewhere in their physiology, and also tend to be somewhat restricted in diversity or range (with one exception, other than what people have done). In this instance, I am stayingg with bony fishes (Osteichthyes) only. The vast majority are freshwater at least part of their lives. And too many of them are threatened with extinction. Most of the pictures will be Actinopterygii (ray-fins), with only a couple of Sarcopterygii (lobe-fins). So no sharks/rays/chimaera (Chondricthyans) or jawless fishes (agnathans) here. Not that I have any of the latter at all (there is one hagfish figure in existence that I have seen pictures of, and I don’t expect to ever find one).

But I will include the extinct fossil species' figures that I do have! It helps build up the lobe-fins a bit!

Often, the fish included are called ‘living fossils’ which is a silly, antiquated term because fossils are rocks and these animals are still alive. If anything, they can be a testament to how successful a good body plan can be in the long term (again, as long as people stay out of it).

The fish! I will do these from oldest/most primitive group to more recent. The people in the photos are sort of close to scale, with exceptions that will be mentioned.

CLADISTIA
Bichirs:

All of them are the saddled bichir Polypterus endlicheri, likely because of their popularity in Japan (the figures are also all Japanese). For the record, these are my favorite fishes in the whole entire world. I have kept 7 different species over the years, and my fish tanks are never complete if I don’t have at least one…

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L-R: Kaiyodo ChocoPets albino bichir, Recent Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box, Kaiyodo normal color Chocopets bichir

CHONDROSTEI
Sturgeon:

The most diverse living group—and the most diverse in figures! The two figures reflect the potential scales depending on the size of the animals (the beluga sturgeon is roughly to scale with the small diver; the Lake sturgeon is a modest specimen in scale with the large diver, as examples)

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L-R: Original Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box Chinese Sturgeon; Kaiyodo Capsule Aquarium White Sturgeon; Replica Toy Fish 3” Lake Sturgeon; Replica Toy Fish 6” Shovelnose Sturgeon; Epoch ‘Shark & Ray Series’ Beluga Sturgeon; 3d-printed Green sturgeon; Recent Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box Chinese Sturgeon

Paddlefish:

Relative of the sturgeon. Until recently there were two species but it is believed that the Chinese Paddlefish Psephurus is possibly extinct; the American Polyodon is not doing much better in many places. The diver is to scale with the 3D printed model.

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Upper L-R: 3D printed model; Whittier Decoys wooden carving; Tchibo bath toy(!)

HOLOSTEI
Gars:

I have a surprising number of these, so I had to split them up!

First, the larger genus, Atractosteus. The diver is to scale with the larger models (using modern sizes—historically, much larger individuals were recorded)

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Back row L-R: Wooden carved alligator gar model; 3D printed Tropical Gar; Recent Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box Alligator gar
Front row L-R: Replica Toy Fish 3” juvenile alligator gar; Replica Toy Fish 3” Adult alligator gar; Replica Toy Fish 6” alligator gar

And a quick photo with the small figures to scale with a diver, for fun!

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The next ones are a variety of Lepisosteus species, again, roughly to scale with the diver.

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Back L-R: Wooden carved Shortnose gar, Wooden Carved Longnose gar
Front L-R: Replica Toy Fish 6” Longnose gar, Replica Toy Fish 3” longnose gar; Toba Aquarium Series 2 ‘living fossils’ spotted gar

Plus, I have a few fossil ones!

A Paleocene gar (I received this as a spare when a designer was building a Paleocene display in a museum I managed). Suffice to say, this isn’t one that can be bought just anywhere!

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And, unlike today, gars used to be found outside of North and Central America. And Favorite captured that in their Hunting Spinosaurus desktop model:

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The explorer is to scale assuming that the spinosaur is ‘only’ about 15 m long. The gar species is likely Dentilepisosteus kemkenensis given the size, place and time—Cretaceous Africa.

Bowfin:

Of all of the primitive fishes, this has proved to be one of the more maddeningly difficult animals to find in any form. Replica Toy Fish once hinted at a 6” model, but so far that has not happened. So I only have this one, clearly not to scale with the diver:

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It is another Whittier Decoys wooden carving. It would be a medium sized specimen if it were alive.

OSTEOGLOSSOMORPHA
The Bonytongues!

The group that started this thread (inadvertently). This is more properly known as the Osteoglossomorphs, and includes Pirarucu (=Arapaima), Arowana, Featherfin Knifefish, Elephantnose fish and other mormyrids; and the freshwater Butterflyfish Pantodon. The only one that I don’t have at least one representative of is the butterflyfish. For now…

Pirarucu:

Roughly to scale with the swimmer, now—like the gars, they were likely capable of growing much larger at one time. There are likely several more figures than this, but I don’t always chase them down. There are also several species of Arapaima but as far as I can tell, all of these are A. gigas; physically the species look very similar.

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L-R, starting at the top: Recent Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box Arapaima, Toba Aquarium Arapaima, Takara ‘Amazon River set’ Arapaima, Original Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box Arapaima, Epoch ‘Living Fossil Collection’ Arapaima, Kaiyodo Capsule Aquarium Arapaima

Other osteoglossomorphs:

I have a representative of each of two of the other families of osteoglossids. The knife fish would be a large but to-scale figure; the elephant nose figure is ridiculously oversized!

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L-R: 3D printed Clown Knifefish Chitala ornatus; 3D printed Double-Nose Elephant Fish Campylomormyrus rhynchophorus.

Arowanas:

The picture that started this!  I have included them all crammed together—with a representative of at least one figure from each of the Australian, Asian (okay, a lot of those) and American species. The only one missing is an African Arowana Heterotis because nobody makes one. They are also related to Arapaima anyway. Like the Arapaima, I don’t always chase after every Asian arowana anymore, because there are a lot of them! Even of the ones I have, there are variants (such as a Gold Kaiyodo Capsule figure, and a red Marmit figure).

And the diver is roughly to scale with the majority of them.

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L-R,  (all Asian Arowana Scleropages formosus unless otherwise stated, but I will give the color as best as I can tell): Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box 2nd release Super Red; Marmit ‘World of Tropical Fish’ Yellow Tail; Yowies Spotted Saratoga Scleropages leichadrti; Yujin “Freshwater Fishes series’ Red Crossback; Kaiyodo Aqualand Silver Arowana Osteoglossum bicirrhosum; Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box 3rd release Malayan Blue; Yujin ‘Freshwater Fishes series’ Gold Highback; Kaiyodo Capsule Aquarium Super Red; Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box 1st release green crossback; Toba Aquarium Series 2 ‘living fossils’ (the color doesn’t look like an obvious existing color variety).

And for fun, a few extinct osteoglossomorphs, from the Cretaceous! These are part of the ichthyodectid family. The small one is to scale with the divers; the large one would be a modest-sized specimen!

Ichthyodectids

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L-R: FaunaCasts Xiphactinus; Bandai ‘Hungry Dinos’ Cladocyclus (it is part of a diorama model, being eaten by a Pteranodon—the scale of the Pteranodon helped me determine what species this should be, as it was clearly an ichtyodectid!)

So that’s all of them that I have. For now, because I hope that other figures will show up for these groups more frequently.

I also hope people can add on!

And soon I will post again with the lobe-fins.

Your collection is REALLY impressive Sean, as your knowledge

I remember watching some gars and pirarucus in a manatee basin this summer, I was really impressed and fascinated.

FaunaCasts Xiphactinus!!!! My great miss, it is a fabulous model.

Some Sarcopterygii pics soon?

Kikimalou wrote:

Your collection is REALLY impressive Sean, as your knowledge

I remember watching some gars and pirarucus in a manatee basin this summer, I was really impressed and fascinated.

FaunaCasts Xiphactinus!!!! My great miss, it is a fabulous model.

Some Sarcopterygii pics soon?

Thanks--yes, the lobefins will come. Just wanted to give some space between all of the photos!

The sturgeons are my favorite! Again, very interesting topic!
Great to see so many different fishes together in one topic! Great job

Very interesting fish collection! Nice to see 3D printed examples

Thank you for this great presentation Sbell.

Simply gorgeous! :3

Beautiful fish, great collection!

Amazing collection and nice photos, congratulations!

Very impressive, Sean!

Amazing collection and nice photos, congratulations!

Phantastic!!!

Thanks everyone! It's always fun to pull the figures out and interact with them again; too often, they wind up on a shelf almost right away and don't really get handled again. Don't really have the time to play, and I'm not about to let the kids have them!

As promised, this is the follow up post, featuring what sarcopterygians (lobe-fin) fish figures I have. With only two surviving groups (sort of), there are not many figures. It doesn’t help that there are less than 10 living species, and only three have been made as figures.

I say sort of because, taxonomically, Sacropterygii includes the lobe-fin fishes, and ALL of their descendants. Which means every tetrapod, including us humans, are lobe-fin fish (as far as I understand things, right now, tetrapods are descended from an extinct lineage, the otherwise-extinct elpistostegalians). But I’m sticking to a more publicly minded way of thinking, as ‘fish’ as ‘swimmy thing with fins’.

It also makes it tougher to just have distinct groups; I have a few fossil species as figures, and they tend to work more on a gradient than as specific groups (like the previous ray-fin fishes). The important thing will be their names anyway. And that there needs to be more of them!

First off, I will start with…

DIPNOMORPHA:
Lungfishes

Famous for their air-breathing ability, lungfish are found, in 3 families, in the southern continents. The Australian Neoceratodus is critically endangered—and is the only one to have any figures (that I know of…) (and that might be changing? Soon?). And there are a lot of them! All but one are Japanese (at least the Australians made one of their own).

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R-L: Original Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box Australian lungfish; Epoch ‘Living Fossil Collection’ Australian lungfish; Toba Aquarium Series 2 ‘living fossils’ Australian lungfish; Yowies Australian lungfish; Recent Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box Australian lungfish

ACTINISTIA
Coelacanths:

The coelacanths (Actinistia) are famous as the fish that didn’t really go extinct, being discovered in the early 20th century as certainly not extinct in the Cretaceous, just marginalized to the deep oceans, instead of their more familiar shallow and freshwater habitats prior to now. There are two living species (one of which gets made far more often), plus several fossil species, of which I have some figures.

Small Latimeria chalumnae figures

These figures are the smaller ones of this species that I have, roughly to scale with the 1:29 Diver figures. The more recent Kaiyodo CapsuleQ Deep-Sea Life figure is almost exactly the right scale.

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L-R: Kaiyodo ‘Deep Sea Odyssey’ Coelacanth’; Kaiyodo ‘CapsuleQ Deep Se Life’ Coelacanth; ‘Okinama Aquarium’ Coelacanth; Colorata mini Coelacanth; Takara ‘Deep Sea Fishes’ Coelacanth

Large Coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae figures

All of these are to scale with the 1:13 diver; the large Safari Coelacanth would be roughly a full size animal. But a diver dressed like this would die trying to swim with one. Just saying.

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L-R: Epoch ‘Living Fossil Collection’; Original Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box Coelacanth; Safari ‘Cryptozoology toob’ Coelacanth (a toob I would otherwise not have bought); Safari WS Dinos Coelacanth (yes, it is officially part of the dinos series); Recent Colorata ‘Fossil Fishes’ box Coelacanth

And for fun, a small plush Coelacanth from Colorata:
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Indonesian Coelacanth Latimeria menadoensis

The other living species, which has a few figures, such as a Takara repaint-version and the Kaiyodo Polystone. But I only have this one (a little large for the diver):

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Colorata Museum Model Series Indonesian Coelacanth

Fossil coelacanths

Unlike the lungfish, there are a few ‘fossil’ coelacanth figures. Unfortunately, they are almost always painted more or less like modern ones. This makes no sense as their environments would have been much different, but so be it.

Axelrodicthys and Holophagus

Roughly to scale with the diver, maybe as smaller individuals

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L-R: Kaiyodo Dinotales S1 Axelrodicthys; Original Famemaster Holophagus (was being eaten by an elasmosaur—hence no pelvic fins); Kaiyodo Dinotales S1v2 Axelrodicthys (with refreshing colour scheme); Re-release Famemaster Holophagus

Mawsonia

To scale (1:100) with the people (yes, it was huge)—and the spinosaur eating it (what is it with Spinosaurus eating all the cool fish? Also, where is the Bawitius version?)

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Takara Tomy ARTS 2011 Dinosaur Expo series Mawsonia

Close up:
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OTHER EXTINCT LOBE-FINS--TETRAPODOMORPHA

The lobe-fins were much more varied in the Paleozoic, and there are a few figures to represent this (put in the right order, with a few more ‘amphibian’-grade figures would give a good evolutionary sequence!). Not many (certainly not enough), but a few.

Rhizodonts

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To scale with 1:40 man. Yowies Lost Kingdoms ‘Duckabrook Rhizodont’, probably Strepsodus

Osteolepiforms & Elpistostegalians

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To scale with 1:24 swimmer.
L-R: Kaiyodo Dinotales S6-A Eusthenopteron; Kaiyodo Dinotales S6-B Eusthenopteron ; Starlux Eusthenopteron; Shapeways 3D-printed Hyneria; Shapeways 3D-printed Tiktaalik

Unlike the previous actinopterygians, I know that there are many more of these lobe-fins out there—at least among coelacanths (another species that I tend to not chase as much now). So I am hoping to see some others from everyone else!

Sean, that is not a topic but a scientific report using fish réplicas as educational resources. magnificent presentation around a unique collection. I like all the research, mainly the clever way you used to identify the reptile diet. Talking about food, knowing you are the king fisher of this forum, I do not know if I feel comfortable knowing that I am a lobfin fish. :afraid: can I keep just as a sarcosuchus instead of a sarcopterygii?

Roger wrote:

Sean, that is not a topic but a scientific report using fish réplicas as educational resources. magnificent presentation around a unique collection. I like all the research, mainly the clever way you used to identify the reptile diet. Talking about food, knowing you are the king fisher of this forum, I do not know if I feel comfortable knowing that I am a lobfin fish. :afraid: can I keep just as a sarcosuchus instead of a sarcopterygii?    

See, it's really just a fun exercise--if you go up and down the tree of life, you can connect any two species. It can make a good game, depending on how advanced you want to get!

I am comfortable with being the result of a lucky fish that went to land. The book (and PBS documentary) "Your Inner Fish" is highly recommended, and gives a unique perspective.

Roger wrote:

Sean, that is not a topic but a scientific report using fish réplicas as educational resources. magnificent presentation around a unique collection.......   

Roger puts ir so much better than I can !!!
I am completely overwhelmed WOW

This is a topic where I will come back again and again, and be sure to learn - and spot - something new each time

Thankyou ever so much for yet another fantastic topic

SUSANNE wrote:

Roger wrote:

Sean, that is not a topic but a scientific report using fish réplicas as educational resources. magnificent presentation around a unique collection.......   

Roger puts ir so much better than I can !!!
I am completely overwhelmed WOW

This is a topic where I will come back again and again, and be sure to learn  - and spot - something new each time

Thankyou ever so much for yet another fantastic topic

Thanks--I am kind of 'falling down the rabbit hole', so to speak, in regards to my fish models and sorting out their classifications. So I may well end up doing more recent lineages eventually. But I never differentiated them as much, so it will take a while (plus, of course, I keep getting more of them...).

I just got my first prototype photos of these! They are being sculpted by a DinoToyForum member named brandem.

First, Polypterus senegalus!

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Second, Protopterus annectens

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I know, right? And now you're all thinking, wait, how do I get one? Well, the good news is that you just keep in touch with me, because these are two of the first 3 Fishes that I am having made for the Fauna Figures store!

The third one is Pantodon buchholzi but I don't have a prototype photo yet (the fins are...awkward).

I will of course post more pictures when I have some. Like when I have them in hand! And details about getting them (and yes, there will be a first-run incentive for forum members when I know what that will be).

I have to admit, I am very jealous... I love ceolocanths. And Lung fish, and... and... Fantastic collection and thank you so very much for sharing.

Very very nice!

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

I have to admit, I am very jealous... I love ceolocanths. And Lung fish, and... and... Fantastic collection and thank you so very much for sharing.

Well, I am trying to make it easier for people to at least get a lungfish! Other than the gars and a few others, almost every figure is a Japanese one, which means it is difficult if not impossible to find some of them (for reasonable prices. Always a consideration).

Even tough fish do not mean much to me, this is very impressive - almost enough to make me want to collect them... and I certainly learned a lot by reading what you tell about the speicies. Thank you!

Rakel wrote:

Even tough fish do not mean much to me, this is very impressive - almost enough to make me want to collect them... and I certainly learned a lot by reading what you tell about the speicies. Thank you!

I don't even know what to say...join us. Fish are fun.

well I have a few, but they are not as fun, when you do not know that much about them. ohh... and then we have a pond with some real ones - do they count?

Rakel wrote:

well I have a few, but they are not as fun, when you do not know that much about them. ohh... and then we have a pond with some real ones - do they count?

Of course--I have my own at home (including a Polypterus senegalus and freshwater butterflyfish!)

Wow... they are beautiful if the pictures I found of them, when is searched, is anything to go by.
We have more ordinary fish; goldfish, koi, grass carp and golden orfe (in gold and silver).