- publication
- 01-01-2004
We describe newly discovered remains of mawsoniid coelacanths from the ?Cenomanian Kem Kem beds of southern Morocco, housed in The Natural History Museum (BMNH) in London and in the Musée des Dinosaures (MDE) in Espéraza, France. MDE F36 is an otico-occipital portion of the braincase of a moderate sized actinistian fish. It comprises the dermal bones of the posterior skull roof dorsally and the endocranial neurocranium ventrally. BMNH P.64127 is part of an ethmo-sphenoid. They are clearly from different-sized individuals. MDE F36 is referred to Mawsoniidae indeterminate and BMNH P.64127 to cf. Mawsonia lavocati with caution, because of difficulties, or even impossibility, to compare non-homologous skull remains from different species. MDE F36 shows that a species distinct from Mawsonia gigas, M. ubangiana, M. tegamensis and probably M. libyca was present in Northwestern Africa during the Cenomanian. MDE F36 shares with Axelrodichthys araripensis extrascapulars incorporated to the postparietal shield where a median element persists.
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