Caproberyx

{{Short description|Extinct genus of fishes}}

{{Italic title}}{{Speciesbox

| fossil_range = {{fossil range|94|89.8|Turonian}}

| image =

| image_caption =

| parent_authority = Regan, 1911

| taxon = Caproberyx superbus

| authority = (Dixon, 1850)

| synonyms = * Beryx superbus Dixon, 1850

• Berycopsis major Woodward, 1902

}}

Caproberyx is an extinct genus of marine acanthomorph ray-finned fish, possibly a holocentrid, from the Late Cretaceous.{{Cite web |title=PBDB Taxon |url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/basicTaxonInfo?taxon_no=439584 |access-date=2024-04-19 |website=paleobiodb.org}}

It contains a single species, C. superbus, from the early to late Turonian of the English Chalk. Other former species found in Lebanon (C. pharsus) and Morocco (C. polydesmus) have been assigned to their own genera (Pattersonoberyx and Stichoberyx respectively).{{Cite journal |last=Friedman |first=Matt |last2=Beckett |first2=Hermione T. |last3=Close |first3=Roger A. |last4=Johanson |first4=Zerina |date=2016 |title=The English Chalk and London Clay: two remarkable British bony fish Lagerstätten |url=https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.1144/SP430.18 |journal=Geological Society, London, Special Publications |language=en |volume=430 |issue=1 |pages=165–200 |doi=10.1144/SP430.18 |issn=0305-8719|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Murray |first=Alison M. |date=2014 |title=Mid-Cretaceous acanthomorph fishes with the description of a new species from the Turonian of Lac des Bois, Northwest Territories, Canada |url=https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/vamp/index.php/VAMP/article/view/25439 |journal=Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology |language=en |volume=1 |pages=101–115 |doi=10.18435/B5CC78 |issn=2292-1389|doi-access=free }} Potential remains of an indeterminate species have also been found in the Smoky Hill Chalk of Kansas, USA.{{Cite web |last=Pool |first=Bob |last2= |first2= |date=1991-08-16 |title=A Fish Catch With Cachet : Buyer Must Donate Fossil to Museum, but Gets to Name Species |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-16-me-468-story.html |access-date=2024-04-19 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}{{Cite journal |last=Allen |first=Jonathan G. |last2=Shimada |first2=Kenshu |date=2021-10-01 |title=Fossil vertebrates from a unique marine bonebed of the Upper Cretaceous Smoky Hill Chalk, western Kansas, U.S.A.: new insights into the paleoecology of the Niobrara Formation |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2021.2066999 |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |language=en |volume=41 |issue=6 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2021.2066999 |issn=0272-4634|url-access=subscription }} The fossil of a similar fish is also known from the Mancos Shale of New Mexico, USA.{{Cite web |title=New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting:Abstract |url=https://nmgs.nmt.edu/meeting/abstracts/view.cfm?aid=2894 |access-date=2024-04-19 |website=New Mexico Geological Society |language=en |doi=10.56577/sm-2023.2894}}

Previously considered a berycid, it has more recently often been considered an early holocentrid, making it related to squirrelfishes and soldierfishes. However, more recent studies have recovered it as an indeterminate acanthomorph, and possibly most closely related to the Trachichthyiformes.{{Cite journal |last=Andrews |first=James V. |last2=Schein |first2=Jason P. |last3=Friedman |first3=Matt |date=2023 |title=An earliest Paleocene squirrelfish (Teleostei: Beryciformes: Holocentroidea) and its bearing on the timescale of holocentroid evolution |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772019.2023.2168571 |journal=Journal of Systematic Palaeontology |language=en |volume=21 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/14772019.2023.2168571 |issn=1477-2019|doi-access=free }}

The species name superbus references the exceptional nature of some specimens, consisting of three-dimensionally preserved mass death assemblages with mouths open in tetany. Such specimens may be the result of rapid burial following these mass mortalities.