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Otero O, Pinton A, Cappetta H, Adnet S, Valentin X, Salem M, Jaeger JJ.
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PLoS One. 2015 Dec 16;10(12):e0144358. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144358. 2015.
Abstract
In the early nineteen sixties, Arambourg and Magnier found some freshwater fish
(i.e., Polypterus sp., Siluriformes indet. and Lates sp.) mixed with marine members
in an Eocene vertebrate assemblage at Gebel Coquin, in the southern Libyan Desert.
This locality, aged ca 37-39Ma and now known under the name of Dur At-Talah, has
been recently excavated. A new fish assemblage, mostly composed of teeth, was
collected by the Mission Paléontologique Franco-Libyenne. In this paper, we describe
freshwater fish members including a dipnoan (Protopterus sp.), and several
actinopterygians: bichir (Polypterus sp.), aba fish (Gymnarchus sp.), several
catfishes (Chrysichthys sp. and a mochokid indet.), several characiforms (including
the tiger fish Hydrocynus sp., and one or two alestin-like fish), and perciforms
(including the snake-head fish Parachanna sp. and at least one cichlid). Together
with the fossiliferous outcrops at Birket Qarun in Egypt, the Libyan site at Dur
At-Talah reduces a 10-Ma chronological gap in the fossil record of African
freshwater fish. Their fish assemblages overlap in their composition and thus
constitute a rather homogenous, original and significant amount of new elements
regarding the Paleogene African ichthyofauna. This supports the establishment of the
modern African freshwater fish fauna during this time period because these sites
mostly contain the earliest members known in modern genera.
Keywords: .
Link/DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144358