New species of coelacanth fish from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) of the Grajaú Basin, NE Brazil

Abstract

Axelrodichthys maiseyi nov. sp. is a mawsoniid fish described from the Albian strata of the Codó Formation, Grajaú Basin, Northeastern Brazil. It is represented by an articulated skull preserved three-dimensionally in a carbonate concretion. In Brazil, the genus also occurs in the Santana Formation as Axelrodichthys araripensis Maisey, 1986. The new species differs from A. araripensis by, among other features, the proportions of the cranial shields, shape of the angular and its contact with principal coronoid, as well as arrangement of the pores of the mandibular sensory canal.