Mawsonia (fish)

Mawsonia Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 110–95 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sarcopterygii
Order:	Coelacanthiformes
Family:	†Mawsoniidae
Genus:	†Mawsonia Woodward, 1907
Species
M. brasiliensis Yabumoto, 2002 M. gigas Woodward, 1907 (type) M. lavocati Tabaste, 1963 M. libyca Weiler, 1935 M. tegamensis Wenz, 1975 M. ubangiana Casier, 1961

Mawsonia is an extinct genus of prehistoric coelacanth fish, and the largest of this group, up to several metres long. It lived during the Cretaceous period (Albian stage, about 99 to 112 million years ago). Fossils have been found in Africa and South America. Mawsonia was first described by British palaeontologist Arthur Smith Woodward in 1907.

Description

Mawsonia was a large coelacanth which lived in the Kem Kem and Bahariya Formation in North Africa, during the Cenomanian. Mawsonia was around 4–6 meters in length, around the size of a rhinoceros (Though specimens in South America mean they could potentially get bigger). Like modern coelocanths, Mawsonia was possibly an oppurtunistic carnivore that could have eaten fish and large invertabrates.^[1]

References

1. http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/m/mawsonia.html

External links

• A Complete Mawsonia Specimen

Sources

• 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
• A Pictorial Guide to Fossils by Gerard Ramon Case
• The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt by William Nothdurft and Josh Smith
• Famous Dinosaurs of Africa by Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan
• The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution by John A. Long
• Evolution of Fossil Ecosystems by Paul Selden and John Nudds