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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton
Published on: May 7, 2016
Latest European coelacanth shows Gondwanan affinities
Lionel Cavin1, Peter L Forey, Eric Buffetaut
1Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London, UK. l.cavin@nhm.ac.uk
Abstract:
The last European fossil occurrence of a coelacanth is from the Mid-Cretaceous of the English Chalk (Turonian, 90 million years ago). Here, we report the discovery of a coelacanth from Late Cretaceous non-marine rocks in southern France. It consists of a left angular bone showing structures that imply close phylogenetic affinities with some extinct Mawsoniidae. The closest relatives are otherwise known from Cretaceous continental deposits of southern continents and suggest that the dispersal of freshwater organisms from Africa to Europe occurred in the Late Cretaceous.
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