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A NEW SEMLIKIICHTHYS FISH (TELEOSTEI, PERCIFORMES) FROM THE UPPER MIOCENE OF CHAD: FOSSIL RECORD AND PALAEOBIOGEOGRAPHICAL IMPLICATIONS
Author(s) -
OTERO OLGA,
LIKIUS ANDOSSA,
VIGNAUD PATRICK,
BRUNET MICHEL
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
palaeontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1475-4983
pISSN - 0031-0239
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00782.x
Subject(s) - neogene , genus , paleontology , geology , teleostei , perciformes , osteology , structural basin , late miocene , fish <actinopterygii> , zoology , biology , fishery
Semlikiichthys is a fossil genus of perciform fish from the Neogene continental deposits of Africa. Until now, it was known in Mio‐Pliocene sites of the Great Lake Region and of the River Nile by a single species, S. rhachirhinchus . Here, we describe new Semlikiichthys material recovered from Central Africa (Upper Miocene of Toros‐Menalla, western Djurab, Chad), and compare it to S. rhachirhinchus , which is the only known species of the genus, and also with Lates niloticus , which is the fish in African Neogene deposits that most closely resembles it. We attribute the Chadian material to Semlikiichthys darsao sp. nov., based on ten osteological characters of the neurocranium, the maxilla, the dentary and the first vertebra. Our comparative anatomical study also enables us to provide a revised diagnosis for the genus and to reconsider the taxonomic attribution of the fossils assigned to it. Furthermore, the fossil record of Semlikiichthys supports a connection between sub‐basins of the Nilo‐Sudanese region during the Miocene, and a disruption between the Great Lake and the Nile Basin on the one hand and the Chadian Basin on the other before 7 Ma.