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From a ~4000 year old Egyptian relic in the Louvre:
Anyone care to have a go?

Answer (as given by the Louvre) to be revealed....

a hybrid of course

No idea, not good with Synos.. but whatever it was, it has a large lobe for soft dorsal spines.

my guess is . If it is common in the hobby today, it must have been common 4000 years ago too

Definitely a hybrid. Parents: Synodontis X Tetranematichthys

Looks a lot like a to me...

B.Batensoda?

Mike_Noren wrote:Looks a lot like a

Hemisynodontis membranacea

to me...

i missed that one.. i like this guess!

Synanceia verrucosa.... aka stonefish ;)

In all reality, Syno membranacea is likely to be the best match.

Larry

Perhaps ? It is often confused with B. batensoda.

But my first thought, before I even saw the first reply was the Hemisynodontis. Shame the barbel are missing - it's just where a little bit has cracked off...

--
Mats

Mike Noren wrote:Looks a lot like a Hemisynodontis membranacea to me...

The small eyes suggest to me that Mike's on the money!

And the winner is.... Richard B! Well done Richard.


There was also a on there but it was too unclear for you to stand a chance of getting it.

RickE wrote:There was also a

Heteropneustes fossilis

on there

I highly doubt it would have been that. More likely a misidentified Schilbe, since I hardly expect the Louvre to be the last word on fish identification.

The so called "Malopterus electricus" look more like to me.

--
Mats

I think the Malapterurus is corectly identified, just not rendered accurately enough.

Silurus wrote:I think the Malapterurus is corectly identified, just not rendered accurately enough.

That is of course another possibility.

--
Mats

Silurus wrote:

RickE wrote:There was also a

Heteropneustes fossilis

on there

I highly doubt it would have been that. More likely a misidentified Schilbe, since I hardly expect the Louvre to be the last word on fish identification.

From the bit I could see, it definitely had a very nice set of type whiskers. I can't see a that comes close in that department. I wish I had tried to get a picture of it now.

There is some information on their website: http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/ ... hing-scene

It might have been a badly-rendered Clarias, then.

I think the ancient Egyptians were more accurate at rendering fish in three dimensions. This is a lot easier to identify correctly.