Babelichthys

Babelichthys Temporal range: Late Eocene,
Part and counterpart slabs. Scale bar = 20 mm
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Lampriformes
Family:	Lophotidae
Genus:	†Babelichthys Davesne, 2017
Species:	†B. olneyi
Binomial name
†Babelichthys olneyi Davesne, 2017

Babelichthys is an extinct genus of crestfish from the ?Late Eocene-aged Pabdeh Formation of Western Iran. It contains a single species, Babelichthys olneyi. The type specimen was initially figured by Camille Arambourg as a second, poorly-preserved specimen of the co-occurring crestfish Protolophotus, but in 2017 it was identified as its own distinct taxon.

The single known specimen consists of a head and the front-most region of the dorsal fin, preserving the extremely elongated and enlarged first dorsal-fin ray. It has been inferred that Babelichthys had a highly elongated "crest" at the front of its dorsal fin that projected horizontally forwards like a horn, akin to that of the extant unicorn crestfish (Eumecichthys fiski) but even larger and more elongated.

It and the unicorn crestfish are each other's closest known relatives. However, some studies find Lophotidae to be paraphyletic, and place Babelichthys as an indeterminate taeniosome.

Scale bar = 10 mm

Etymology

The genus name Babelichthys literally translates to "Babel fish" in Greek, named after the teleost-like, ear-dwelling, polyglot extraterrestrial species from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as a reference to the very peculiar, almost alien-like, appearance of the genus. The species name "olneyi" is named after John E. Olney for his work on the anatomy and ontogeny of Lampriformes.