Extinct genus of coelacanths
Mawsonia is an
extinct
genus of
prehistoric
coelacanth fish. It is amongst the largest of all coelacanths, with one quadrate specimen (DGM 1.048-P) possibly belonging to an individual measuring 5.3 metres (17.4 feet) in length.
[2] It lived in freshwater and brackish environments from the late
Jurassic to the mid-
Cretaceous (
Tithonian to
Cenomanian
stages , about 152 to 96
million years ago ) of South America, eastern North America, and Africa. Mawsonia was first described by British
paleontologist
Arthur Smith Woodward in 1907.
[3]
Description
Restored head
The
fish has six fins: two on the top of the body, two on the sides, one at the end of its tail and one at the bottom of its tail. Rather than having teeth, the inside of the mouth was covered in small (1-2 mm) denticles.
[4] It reached at least 3.5 m (11 ft) in length, although one specimen possibly exceeded 5 m (16 ft), only rivaled by the related
Trachymetopon .
[5]
[6]
[2]
Taxonomy
The genus was named by
Arthur Smith Woodward in 1907, from specimens found in the Early Cretaceous (
Hauterivian ) aged
Ilhas Group of
Bahia , Brazil.
Fossils have been found on three continents; in South America they have been found in the
Bahia Group ,
Romualdo ,
Alcântara ,
Brejo Santo and
Missão Velha Formations of
Brazil , and the
Tacuarembó Formation of
Uruguay .
[4] In
Africa , they are known from the
Continental Intercalaire of
Algeria and Tunisia, the
Ain el Guettar Formation of
Tunisia , the
Kem Kem Group of Morocco, and the
Babouri Figuil Basin of
Cameroon , spanning from the Late Jurassic, to early Late Cretaceous. Fossils assigned to Mawsonia have also been found in
Woodbine Formation of
Texas ,
USA , then part of the island continent
Appalachia .
[7]
[8]
The type species is Mawsonia gigas , named and described in 1907. Numerous distinct species have been described since then. M . brasiliensis , M . libyca , M . minor , and M . ubangiensis have all been proposed to be synonyms of M . gigas ,
[6]
[9] although Léo Fragoso's 2014 thesis on mawsoniids
[10] finds M . brasiliensis valid and cautions against synonymizing M . minor without further examination. Several recent publications consider M . brasiliensis to be valid as well.
[9]
[11]
[12]
[13] Although initially considered to belong to this genus, "Mawsonia " lavocati is most likely referable to
Axelrodichthys instead.
[13]
[14]
Ecology
Mawsonia was native to freshwater and brackish ecosystems.
[15] The diet of Mawsonia and their mechanism of feeding is uncertain. It has been suggested that the denticles were used to crush hard shelled organisms (
durophagy )
[16] or that prey was swallowed whole using
suction feeding .
[17]
References
^
^
a
b Cavin, Lionel; Piuz, André; Ferrante, Christophe; Guinot, Guillaume (2021-06-03).
"Giant Mesozoic coelacanths (Osteichthyes, Actinistia) reveal high body size disparity decoupled from taxic diversity" . Scientific Reports . 11 (1): 11812.
Bibcode :
2021NatSR..1111812C .
doi :
10.1038/s41598-021-90962-5 .
ISSN
2045-2322 .
PMC
8175595 .
PMID
34083600 .
^
Mawsonia
Archived 2021-12-12 at the
Wayback Machine at
Fossilworks .org
^
a
b Toriño, Pablo; Soto, Matías; Perea, Daniel; Salgado de Carvalho, Marise Sardenberg (1 April 2021).
"New findings of the coelacanth Mawsonia Woodward (Actinistia, Latimerioidei) from the Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous of Uruguay: Novel anatomical and taxonomic considerations and an emended diagnosis for the genus" . Journal of South American Earth Sciences . 107 : 103054.
Bibcode :
2021JSAES.10703054T .
doi :
10.1016/j.jsames.2020.103054 .
ISSN
0895-9811 .
S2CID
229397087 .
^ Dutel, Hugo; Pennetier, Elisabeth; Pennetier, Gérard (2014-07-29).
"A giant marine coelacanth from the Jurassic of Normandy, France" . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 34 (5): 1239–1242.
Bibcode :
2014JVPal..34.1239D .
doi :
10.1080/02724634.2014.838176 .
ISSN
0272-4634 .
S2CID
130632357 .
^
a
b de Carvalho, Marise S. S.; Maisey, John G. (2008).
"New occurrence of Mawsonia (Sarcopterygii: Actinistia) from the Early Cretaceous of the Sanfranciscana Basin, Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil" . Geological Society, London, Special Publications . 295 (1): 109–144.
Bibcode :
2008GSLSP.295..109D .
doi :
10.1144/sp295.8 .
ISSN
0305-8719 .
S2CID
73613846 .
^ Cavin L, Toriño P, Van Vranken N, Carter B, Polcyn MJ, Winkler D (2021)
The first late cretaceous mawsoniid coelacanth (Sarcopterygii: Actinistia) from North America: Evidence of a lineage of extinct ‘living fossils’ . PLoS ONE 16(11): e0259292.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259292
^
"Visiting instructor part of fossil fish team" . 21 December 2021.
^
a
b Cupello, Camila; Batista, Thatiany A.; Fragoso, Léo G.; Brito, Paulo M. (2016-10-01).
"Mawsoniid remains (Sarcopterygii: Actinistia) from the lacustrine Missão Velha Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of the Araripe Basin, North-East Brazil" . Cretaceous Research . 65 : 10–16.
Bibcode :
2016CrRes..65...10C .
doi :
10.1016/j.cretres.2016.04.009 .
ISSN
0195-6671 .
^ Fragoso, Léo (2014).
"Revisão do Ramo Gondwânico da família Mawsoniidae (Sarcopterygii: Actinistia: Coelacanthiformes)" . Doctoral Dissertation, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro .
^ Batista, Thatiany Alencar; Bantim, Renan Alfredo Machado; Lima, Flaviana Jorge de; Santos Filho, Edilson Bezerra dos; Saraiva, Antônio Álamo Feitosa (2019-11-01).
"New data on the coelacanth fish-fauna (Mawsoniidae) from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Araripe Basin, Brazil" . Journal of South American Earth Sciences . 95 : 102280.
Bibcode :
2019JSAES..9502280B .
doi :
10.1016/j.jsames.2019.102280 .
ISSN
0895-9811 .
S2CID
199106397 .
^ Cavin, Lionel; Cupello, Camila; Yabumoto, Yoshitaka; Léo, Fragoso; Deersi, Uthumporn; Brito, Paul M. (2019).
"Phylogeny and evolutionary history of mawsoniid coelacanths" (PDF) . Bulletin of the Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History, Series A . 17 : 3–13.
^
a
b Fragoso, Léo Galvão Crainer; Brito, Paulo; Yabumoto, Yoshitaka (2019-11-26).
"Axelrodichthys araripensis Maisey, 1986 revisited" . Historical Biology . 31 (10): 1350–1372.
doi :
10.1080/08912963.2018.1454443 .
ISSN
0891-2963 .
S2CID
89795160 .
^ Ibrahim, Nizar; Sereno, Paul C.; Varricchio, David J.; Martill, David M.; Dutheil, Didier B.; Unwin, David M.; Baidder, Lahssen; Larsson, Hans C. E.; Zouhri, Samir; Kaoukaya, Abdelhadi (2020-04-21).
"Geology and paleontology of the Upper Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of eastern Morocco" . ZooKeys (928): 1–216.
Bibcode :
2020ZooK..928....1I .
doi :
10.3897/zookeys.928.47517 .
ISSN
1313-2970 .
PMC
7188693 .
PMID
32362741 .
^ Meunier, François J.; Cupello, Camila; Yabumoto, Yoshikata; Brito, Paulo M. (2018).
"The diet of the Early Cretaceous coelacanth †Axelrodichthys araripensis Maisey, 1986 (Actinistia: Mawsoniidae)" .
doi :
10.26028/CYBIUM/2018-421-011 .
^ Barbara S. Grandstaff, Joshua Smith, Matthew Lamanna, Allison Tumarkin-Deratzian, Joshua B Smith, Matthew Lamanna, Allison Tumarkin-Deratzian (2004) Cranial Kinesis and Diet in Mawsonia (Actinistia, Coelanthiformes)
^ Cavin, Lionel; Boudad, Larbi; Tong, Haiyan; Läng, Emilie; Tabouelle, Jérôme; Vullo, Romain (2015-05-27).
"Taxonomic Composition and Trophic Structure of the Continental Bony Fish Assemblage from the Early Late Cretaceous of Southeastern Morocco" . PLOS ONE . 10 (5): e0125786.
Bibcode :
2015PLoSO..1025786C .
doi :
10.1371/journal.pone.0125786 .
ISSN
1932-6203 .
PMC
4446216 .
PMID
26018561 .
Further reading
Fishes of the World by Joseph S. Nelson
History of the Coelacanth Fishes by Peter Forey
Discovering Fossil Fishes by John Maisey and John G. Maisey
The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution by John A. Long
Evolution of Fossil Ecosystems by Paul Selden and John Nudds