Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of broad-snouted chondrichthyan fish from several fossilized specimens found in Morocco.
The newly-identified species lived during the Famennian stage of the Late Devonian epoch, some 365 million years ago.
Dubbed Maghriboselache mohamezanei, the ancient fish was between 0.8 and 2.5 m (2.6-8.2 feet) long.
It belongs to the family Cladoselachidae and represents a sister taxon to the iconic genus Cladoselache.
“This family now comprises the genera Cladoselache and Maghriboselache, thus far limited to the Famennian of the United States and Morocco,” said lead author Dr. Christian Klug, a paleontologist with the Paläontologisches Institut und Museum at the University of Zurich, and his colleagues.
Several well-preserved skeletons of Maghriboselache mohamezanei were found in the southern parts of the Maïder Basin and of the Tafilalt Platform in the Moroccan Anti-Atlas.
“Maghriboselache mohamezanei is represented by several individuals, some of which include a three-dimensionally preserved neurocranium,” the paleontologists explained.
“These specimens, like those of other chondrichthyans from the eastern Anti-Atlas are nearly complete, nearly fully articulated and several examples include remains of the integument, musculature, digestive tract and the liver.”
“Along with many other chondrichthyans, this material was extracted from the Thylacocephalan layer (middle Famennian) of the highly fossiliferous Devonian marine sedimentary outcrops laid down in two small epicontinental basins, now located in the Maïder and Tafilalt regions of the eastern Anti-Atlas of Morocco.”
“Besides chondrichthyans, these sediments have also yielded diverse invertebrates, placoderms, acanthodian stem-chondrichthyans, and actinopterygians.”
Maghriboselache mohamezanei had a broad snout and a widely separated and generously proportioned pair of nasal capsules.
This feature is unknown in other contemporary or…
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