Cleithrolepis Temporal range:
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†Cleithrolepis
Egerton, 1864
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Type species | |
†Cleithrolepis granulata Egerton, 1864
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Other species | |
Cleithrolepis is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish that lived in during the Anisian age ( Middle Triassic epoch) in what is now Australia ( New South Wales, Tasmania) and Libya. A species from the Carnian ( Late Triassic) of Germany, C. brueckneri, was also ascribed to Cleithrolepis. [1]
The genus grew to about 30 centimetres (12 in) long. It had a weak lower jaw with teeth only at the tip. [2]
Cleithrolepis lived in rivers, billabongs and lakes in the large braided river system that deposited the Hawkesbury Sandstone in what is now New South Wales, with fossils found in shale lenses within the sandstone. [3] Fossils were also found in Tasmania ( Knocklofty Formation) and in a drill core sample from Libya. [4]