Netsepoye hawesi is an extinct prehistoric cartilaginous fish, which lived around 420 million years ago, during the Late Mississippian. It has been discovered at the well known Bear Gulch Formation in Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, dated at Carboniferous period. This Paleozoic

Paleozoic

The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...

 fish is mostly known by teeth, though cephalic region and the rest of the body are partially preserved. Pectoral fins were very broad and the pelvic girdle showed very high dorsal

Dorsal fin

A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...

 process. Netsepoye hawesi is closely related to Janassa

Janassa

Janassa is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fish that lived in marine environments in what is now central United States of America and Europe during the Carboniferous and Permian. It is known from teeth, and a lot good preserved whole fossils from Germany and England...

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The name Netsepoye comes from a Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 term, meaning "the people that speaks the same language". The word refers to the Blackfoot Confederacy

Blackfoot

The Blackfoot Confederacy or Niitsítapi is the collective name of three First Nations in Alberta and one Native American tribe in Montana....

, hinting that the fossil specimen is in Blackfoot territory as well as another petalodontiform Siksika ottae

Siksika ottae

Siksika ottae is an extinct prehistoric cartilaginous fish, lived during the Upper Mississippian. It has been discovered at the well known Bear Gulch Formation , dated at Carboniferous period...

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