Canobius
genus of fishes (fossil)
Canobius (named for Canobie, the district where it was discovered) is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish that lived in the early Carboniferous period (Viséan) of Glencartholm, Scotland.
Two species are known from fossil specimens:
†C. elegantulus Traquair, 1881
†C. ramsayi Traquair, 1881
Potential indeterminate remains are known from the Tournaisian of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Many other species were previously referred to this genus, but have since been reclassified.
Canobius was a small fish, 7 centimetres (3 in) in length. Compared with its earlier relatives, it had specialized jawbones and hyomandibulars which attached the upper jaw to the braincase, meaning that the jaws were hung vertically under the braincase. This allowed Canobius to open its jaws wider and expand its gill slits further at the same time. In turn, this meant that the fish could take in more oxygen, making it a more active creature. Canobius is presumed to have fed on plankton which is filtered from the water using its small teeth and gills.
The public source identifies “Canobius” as genus of fishes (fossil). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Canobius, genus and fishes.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 28, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1751853. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1881.
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This entry incorporates text from “Canobius” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.