- publication
- 01-01-1996
The locality of Ventabren (early Campanian in age) was ran by one of us (M. M.) in 1981. It contains Lepisosteidae, turtles (Polysternon provinciale, "Apholidemys" aff. gaudryi) and indeterminated crocodiles. Some remains of a desarticulated lepisosteid fish discovered in 1992 are described herein. They consist of large scales and fragmentary elements of the skull (two pieces of the left and right infraorbital series, a left dermopalatine and three pieces of the skull cheek). This material belongs to Atractosteus africanus (ARAMBOURG & JOLEAUD, 1943) described for the first time in the Senonian of Niger. The French occurrence supports the thesis of euro-african continental faunal exchanges during Upper Cretaceous. The direction of the exchange for the Ginglymodi would be Africa-Europe for a representative of this group is known in the Lower Cretaceous of Congo (Paralepidosteus praecursor CASIER, 1961) but none of them is known in Europe at this time.
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