Pycnodont from Kansas

This page is devoted to fossil fishes from the Mesozoic Era, and to the researchers around the world who study them. The ancient fishes studied include representatives of all major fish groups that lived during the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods, in both fresh waters and in the oceans.

Subjects of interest include anatomy, phylogenetic relationships, functional morphology, taxonomy, paleoecology, taphonomy, biogeography, and biostratigraphy. Micro-remains (such as scales, teeth, and bone fragments), larger bones, and articulated skeletons all make important contributions to our knowledge of Mesozoic fish life.

Mesozoic fish researchers met for the first time in 1993 at an international conference in Eichstätt, Germany. We now number more than 170, working in more than twenty countries. Keeping in touch by means of a newsletter, e-mail, fax, the World Wide Web, and other means, we met in Germany in 1997, in Switzerland in 2001, and plan to meet again in Spain in 2005.