Aglyptorhynchus

Aglyptorhynchus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine billfish that was distributed worldwide from the early Eocene to the early Miocene. Fossils are primarily known from the Northern Hemisphere (both coasts of North America and western/central Europe), but one species is also known to have inhabited the waters off New Zealand.

The following species are known:


 * A. columbianus Fierstine, 2005 (Oligocene of Washington)
 * A. denticulatus (Leriche, 1906) (Miocene of Austria)
 * A. hakataramea Gottfried, Fordyce & Rust, 2012 (Oligocene of New Zealand)
 * A. maxillaris Fierstine, 2001 (Oligocene of Oregon)
 * A. sulcatus (Casier, 1946) (Eocene of Belgium and the United Kingdom)
 * A. venablesi Casier, 1966 (Eocene of the United Kingdom and Virginia)

Indeterminate remains are known from the Eocene of South Carolina and the Miocene of Hungary. It has been hypothesized that Aglyptorhynchus originally arose in the Atlantic around the warm Gulf Stream, and migrated to the Pacific by the Oligocene via the then-open Central American Seaway.