Thursday 6 June 2013

Fossil Remains Reveal New Species of Marine Fish from 408 Million Years Ago in Teruel, Spain

June 3, 2013 — Researchers from the University of Valencia and the Natural History Museum of Berlin have studied the fossilised remains of scales and bones found in Teruel, Spain, and the south of Zaragoza, ascertaining that they belong to a new fish species called Machaeracanthus goujeti that lived in that area of the peninsula during the Devonian period. The fossils are part of the collection housed in the Palaeontology Museum of Zaragoza.
(Credit: SINC)

In the journal Geodiversitas, a research team led by the University of Valencia describes a new species of spiny shark (Acanthodii), a primitive type of fish that shared characteristics with sharks and bony fish. Remains of scales, bones and scapular joint bones were found in Devonian (approximately 408 million years ago) in Teruel and the south of Zaragoza.

The paper also includes an analysis of fossils of a fragmented spine and isolated scales from the Lower Devonian found in northern Spain (Palencia and Cantabrian Mountains) and western France (Saint-Céneré commune), originally attributed to the Machaeracanthus sp species.

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