A marine Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) coelacanth from North Africa (original) (raw)

ADS

;

• Martill, David M. ;
• Eaves, Ian ;
• Smith, Roy E. ;
• Cooper, Samuel L. A.

Abstract

An isolated, articulated, but crushed ossified lung of a mawsoniid coelacanth is reported from uppermost Cretaceous (upper Maastrichtian) of Oued Zem, Morocco. The specimen is the last record of a coelacanth before their pseudo-extinction at the end of the Mesozoic. The specimen is also the first record of a marine coelacanth in the Mesozoic of Morocco and the first occurrence of coelacanths in the phospahte deposits of North Africa. The large size of the lung suggests a fish estimated at between 3.65 m and 5.52 m total body length.

Publication:

Cretaceous Research

Pub Date:

June 2021

DOI:

10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104768

Bibcode:

2021CrRes.12204768B

Keywords:

• Coelacanth;
• Mawsoniidae;
• Late Cretaceous;
• Morocco;
• North Africa;
• Palaeoichthyology