Stratum.black
Amia — Amia
Amia — Zachary Randall, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Fish

Amia

Bowfin

Amia is the bowfin, a living-fossil fish whose relatives are found complete in the Green River Formation (often sold as Amia or Cyclurus) and as isolated vertebrae and tooth plates in Hell Creek microsites. Green River bowfins are large, heavy-scaled and expensive; their button-like vertebrae are common in Cretaceous river deposits.

PhylumChordata
ClassActinopterygii
OrderAmiiformes
FamilyAmiidae
GroupFish
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorLinnaeus 1766· Paleobiology Database
Common name (PBDB)bowfin· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Chordata › Osteichthyes › Amiiformes › Amiidae· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)137–0 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences140· Paleobiology Database

Photographs

Amia — Amia calva Linnaeus, 1766 (NHMUK 2021.8.31.2)
Amia calva Linnaeus, 1766 (NHMUK 2021.8.31.2) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Amia — Amia Linnaeus, 1766 (NHMUK PV P 1532 a)
Amia Linnaeus, 1766 (NHMUK PV P 1532 a) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Amia — Amia Linnaeus, 1766 (NHMUK PV P 62144)
Amia Linnaeus, 1766 (NHMUK PV P 62144) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Age

Formations

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Amia" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/amia. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-amia,
  title        = {Amia},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/amia}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons, nhm. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.