Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Cavin, Lionel
• Forey, Peter L
• Buffetaut, Eric
• Tong, Haiyan

Titel

Latest European coelacanth shows Gondwanan affinities

Ist Teil von

• Biology letters (2005), 2005-06, Vol.1 (2), p.176-177

Ort / Verlag

London: The Royal Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2005

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The last European fossil occurrence of a coelacanth is from the Mid-Cretaceous of the English Chalk (Turonian, 90 million years ago). Here, we report the discovery of a coelacanth from Late Cretaceous non-marine rocks in southern France. It consists of a left angular bone showing structures that imply close phylogenetic affinities with some extinct Mawsoniidae. The closest relatives are otherwise known from Cretaceous continental deposits of southern continents and suggest that the dispersal of freshwater organisms from Africa to Europe occurred in the Late Cretaceous.