Photo: National Park Service, Fossil Butte National Monument
- Order
- Gonorynchiformes
- Family
- Gonorynchidae
- Size
- About 67.8 cm / 26.7 in
A migratory bottom-feeder and the last North American survivor of its order.
N. osculus was the last survivor of the Gonorynchiformes order in North America. There are 5 modern species in the Gonorynchidae family that inhabit tropical marine regions of the Indo-Pacific Oceans.
Very young juveniles and large adults are the only N. osculus specimens found from Fossil Lake. This could indicate that N. osculus was a migratory species. Their lifecycle may have consisted of: hatching in Fossil Lake, migrating to connecting streams to mature, and returning to Fossil Lake as an adult to spawn and die.
N. osculus had a down-turned, sucker-like mouth. Its toothless mouth suggests that this was a bottom-feeding species. The highly salty water conditions at the bottom of Fossil Lake should have excluded most scavengers and bottom-feeders. Yet, N. osculus is found exclusively in deep-water deposits. This suggests that N. osculus spent most of its life outside of Fossil Lake in connecting rivers and streams.
Species text: National Park Service, Fossil Butte National Monument — Fossil Fish Species.