Hemingwaya

{{Short description|Extinct genus of ray-finned fishes}}

{{Speciesbox

| fossil_range = Earliest Ypresian, {{Fossil range|56|55}}

| genus = Hemingwaya

| grandparent_authority = Sytchevskaya & Prokofiev, 2002

| parent_authority = Sytchevskaya & Prokofiev, 2002

| species = sarissa

| authority = Sytchevskaya & Prokofiev, 2002

}}

Hemingwaya is an extinct genus of billfish in the monotypic family Hemingwayidae that lived during the earliest Eocene epoch, approximately 56 to 55 million years ago.{{Cite PBDB|taxon|344135|Hemingwaya}} It contains a single species, H. sarissa. Members of this family are characterized by their elongated, spear-like bills, a feature that defines modern billfish such as swordfish and marlins. It is known from the Danata Formation of Turkmenistan, which represented a far eastern inland arm of the Tethys Ocean, and was deposited in the earliest Eocene shortly after the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.{{Cite journal |last=Bannikov |first=A. F. |last2=Erebakan |first2=I. G. |date=2023-10-01 |title=On the Evolution of Some Groups of Marine Bony Fishes in the Cenozoic of the Tethys and Paratethys |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0031030123050015 |journal=Paleontological Journal |language=en |volume=57 |issue=5 |pages=475–490 |doi=10.1134/S0031030123050015 |issn=1555-6174|url-access=subscription }} The genus name honors famed author Ernest Hemingway, who prominently featured a marlin in his 1952 novella The Old Man and the Sea, while the species name "sarissa" originates from the Greek word for "spear".{{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=Richard |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Swordfish/JC-Ygl35oHoC? |title=Swordfish: A Biography of the Ocean Gladiator |date=2013-04-15 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-92292-8 |language=en}}

The fossils of Hemingwaya provide insight into the early evolution of billfishes, representing one of the first known lineages to exhibit the characteristic bill-like morphology. These fish were part of the broader group of "billfish-like" species, which evolved specialized hunting adaptations for catching fast-moving prey. While the exact diversity within the family is limited, the fossil record indicates that Hemingwaya were part of the evolutionary stem group that led to the development of modern billfishes.{{Cite web |title=Fossil history of Hemingwayidae |url=https://nixillustration.com/tag/hemingwayidae/}}{{Cite web |title=PHYLOGENY OF RECENT BILLFISHES (XIPHIOIDEI) |url=https://openknowledge.fao.org/bitstreams/85d10b39-2391-4b74-8f28-a1c3567cdef6/download}}{{Cite web |title=Phylogeny of Recent billfishes (Xiphioidei) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233491953_Phylogeny_of_Recent_billfishes_Xiphioidei |website=ResearchGate}}{{Cite web |title=Hemingwayidae ✝ |url=https://www.mindat.org/taxon-P344134.html}}{{Cite web |title=Family hemingwayidae |url=https://www.gbif.org/species/8003662}}{{Cite web |title=Fossil history of xiphioidei |url=https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1021%26context%3Dbio_fac&ved=2ahUKEwjZr7r1tdWJAxU8TGwGHUNtJG4QFnoECDMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3j_SJ9QgLlMzWonFIzUwTR}}