Bucklandium diluvii

Bucklandium diluvii

König, 1825

Common name Catfish
Fossil group Bony Fish
Order Siluriformes
Family incertae sedis
Genus Bucklandium
Taxonomic status Taxonomically Uncertain
Geological age Ypresian

Summary

Bucklandium diluvii is an enigmatic London Clay ray-finned fish known from a cranium with associated pectoral-arch material. It was historically interpreted as a catfish and compared with living siluriforms, but later re-examination of the type material has questioned that assignment. Its exact position therefore remains unresolved, and it should not be reconstructed as a conventional catfish with a confidently known ecology.

The fossil is nevertheless substantial enough to show a strongly ossified, heavily sculptured head and shoulder region. Because the jaws, soft tissues and complete body are poorly known, diet and lifestyle cannot be inferred securely; the most useful biological message is that it represents a distinctive large-bodied teleost cranial type within the London Clay fauna whose relationships still need clarification.

Quick Identification

Look for: a thick, strongly ossified cranial or pectoral-arch fragment with coarse sculpturing and heavy ridges; the known material is robust three-dimensional head-and-shoulder bone rather than an otolith, isolated tooth or delicate rostral fragment.

Diagnostic Features

  • Known type material includes a substantial cranium associated with part of the pectoral arch.
  • Dermal cranial bones are thick and strongly ossified.
  • External skull surfaces carry coarse relief rather than fine parallel striation.
  • Raised bony ridges separate broad sculptured areas on the cranial roof.
  • Pectoral-arch elements are robust and closely associated with the posterior skull in the type specimen.

Fossil Details

Preservation
London Clay fish skulls are commonly incomplete, compressed, pyritised or enclosed in concretions. Thin cranial margins and projecting processes are easily lost, and separated bones can be difficult to orient; species-level identification is strongest when several adjoining diagnostic bones are preserved together.

Recorded Fossil Sites

No fossil-site occurrences have yet been recorded for this species.

References

  • Casier, E. (1966). Faune ichthyologique du London Clay. 496 pp.. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), London View reference
  • Friedman, M.; Beckett, H. T.; Close, R. A.; Johanson, Z. (2016). The English Chalk and London Clay: two remarkable British bony fish Lagerstätten. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 430(1), 165–200. Geological Society of London, London View reference
Last Reviewed
20 August 2026 Reviewed by Sam Harris