Bathysoma is an extinct genus of marine lampriform ray-finned fish from the early-mid Paleocene. It contains a single species, B. lutkeni from Sweden. Its fossils are common in exposures of the Danian København Limestone Formation at Limhamns kalkbrott, one of the largest quarries in northern Europe. A single specimen is also known from an erratic boulder from the Selandian Lellinge Greensand Formation of southern Sweden.
It is the second oldest lampriform known, after Nardovelifer of Campanian/Maastrichtian Italy. B. lutkeni has a disk-shaped body and an elongated head. It was originally described as a menid bony fish. Later, it was described as being a basal snake mackerel. "A new species of Mene (Perciformes: Menidae) from the Paleocene of South America, with notes on paleoenvironment and a brief review of menid fishes." Eventually, anatomical similarities with the turkmenids were noted, and B. lutkeni is now regarded as an extremely basal lamprid.
References
External links
Bathysoma at the Paleobiology Database Lampridiformes