Wednesday 5 September 2012

New species of Ginglymodian Fish from the Late Jurassic of northeast Thailand.

The Ginglymodians are a group of primitive Ray-Finned Fish, which includes the modern Gars but which was far more diverse in the Mesozoic.

In a forthcoming paper in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, a team of Palaeontologists led by Uthumporn Deesri of the Department of Biology at the Faculty of Science at Mahasarakham University describe a new species of Ginglymodian Fish from the (probably) Late Jurassic lower Phu Kradung Formation in Kalasin Province, Thailand.

The new species is placed in the pre-existing genus Isanichthys, and given the specific name lertboosi in honour of Lertboos Gongtong, former chief of Kam Muang District. It is an 800 mm Ginglymodian Fish described from a single fairly complete specimen and three partial skulls. Isanichthys lertboosi has an ornate skull with heavy jaws and extremely variable dentition, which suggests that the specimens may in fact represent more than one species.

The more-or-less complete specimen of Isanichthys lertboosi. Deesri et al. (2012).

Detail of the skull of (top) the complete specimen of Isanichthys lertboosi and (middle and bottom) two other specimens refered to the species. Note the variation in jaw morphology. Deesri et al. (2012).


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