Latimeriidae

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Latimeriidae
Temporal range: Middle Triassic–present
Coelacanth off Pumula on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, South Africa, on 22 November 2019.png
West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae)
Undina penicillata 1m.jpg
Undina pencillata , an extinct species
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Sarcopterygii
Class: Actinistia
Order: Coelacanthiformes
Suborder: Latimerioidei
Family: Latimeriidae
Berg, 1940
Genera
Life restoration of Foreyia, an aberrant latimeriid from the Triassic of Europe Reconstruction of the living coelacanth Foreyia maxkuhni - Alain Beneteau.jpg
Life restoration of Foreyia , an aberrant latimeriid from the Triassic of Europe

Latimeriidae is the only extant family of coelacanths, an ancient lineage of lobe-finned fish. It contains two extant species in the genus Latimeria , found in deep waters off the coasts of southern Africa and east-central Indonesia. In addition, several fossil genera are known from the Mesozoic of Europe, the Middle East, and the southeastern United States, dating back to the Triassic. [2] [3] [4]

The latimeriids are thought to have always been an exclusively marine group. They may have originated in the western Tethys Sea, as many of the earliest species are known from areas that it formerly covered. [5] The largest known member of the family, the Late Cretaceous Megalocoelacanthus , may have reached 4.5 metres in length. [6] The Latimeriidae are thought to be the sister group to the Mawsoniidae, an extinct family of coelacanths that survived until the Late Cretaceous, inhabited both freshwater and marine habitats, and contained some very large species. Together, both comprise the suborder Latimerioidei. [5] [7]

Cladogram after Toriño et al., 2021. [7]

Latimeriidae

References

  1. Ferrante, C.; Cavin, L. (2023). "Early Mesozoic burst of morphological disparity in the slow-evolving coelacanth fish lineage". Scientific Reports. 13 (1): 11356. Bibcode:2023NatSR..1311356F. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-37849-9. PMC   10345187 . PMID   37443368.
  2. "Fossilworks: Latimeriidae". Paleobiology Database . Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  3. "FAMILY Details for Latimeriidae - Gombessa". www.fishbase.se. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  4. "Mindat.org". www.mindat.org. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  5. 1 2 Uyeno, Teruya; Yabumoto, Yoshitaka (November 2007). "ORIGIN OF EXTANT COELACANTHS". ResearchGate.
  6. Dutel, Hugo; Maisey, John G.; Schwimmer, David R.; Janvier, Philippe; Herbin, Marc; Clément, Gaël (2012-11-27). Soares, Daphne (ed.). "The Giant Cretaceous Coelacanth (Actinistia, Sarcopterygii) Megalocoelacanthus dobiei Schwimmer, Stewart & Williams, 1994, and Its Bearing on Latimerioidei Interrelationships". PLOS ONE. 7 (11): e49911. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...749911D. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049911 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   3507921 . PMID   23209614.
  7. 1 2 Toriño, Pablo; Soto, Matías; Perea, Daniel (2021-12-02). "A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of coelacanth fishes (Sarcopterygii, Actinistia) with comments on the composition of the Mawsoniidae and Latimeriidae: evaluating old and new methodological challenges and constraints" . Historical Biology. 33 (12): 3423–3443. Bibcode:2021HBio...33.3423T. doi:10.1080/08912963.2020.1867982. ISSN   0891-2963. S2CID   233942585.