Open AccessAn African twin to the Brazilian Calamopleurus (Actinopterygii: Amiidae)
Author(s) -
FOREY PETER L.,
GRANDE LANCE
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
zoological journal of the linnean society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1096-3642
pISSN - 0024-4082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1998.tb01299.x
Subject(s) - biology , actinopterygii , context (archaeology) , genus , cretaceous , paleontology , zoology , fish <actinopterygii> , fishery
A new species of amiid fish, Calamopleurus africanus sp. nov., is described on the basis of fragmentary material from ?Albian Kem Kem beds of southern Morocco. The new species shows several derived characters of the genus Calamopleurus such as ossified dermopterotic ribs, an inferred loose association between the dermosphenotic and the skull roof, a gular plate with a scalloped posterior margin, and a hyomandibular with a very long posterior (opercular) process. It differs from the type species in the proportions of the frontals, supramaxilla and gular. The distribution of Calamopleurus and some other Lower Cretaceous fishes is discussed in the context of the presumed adjacency of west Africa and eastern Brazil during much of the Mesozoic.