Coelacanth fishes from the continental Triassic of the western United States. Am Mus Novitates 2036

Remains of coelacanth fishes from the continental Triassic of the western United States are rare and usually fragmentary. There is now enough evidence, however, to demonstrate that these fishes are present in both the lower (Moenkopi) and the upper (Chinle and Dockum) Triassic beds of this region. The first identified fragments were collected in 1925 by E. C. Case in the Dockum formation of Crosby County, Texas. They consist of an associated quadrate and partial pterygoid tentatively re-ferred to Macropoma by Warthin (1928). The purpose of the present paper is to provide descriptions of the other coelacanth specimens known to us which have been collected since the initial discovery. In spite of the general rarity of fishes in the Moenkopi, Dockum, and Chinle formations, important finds have been made in recent years which will considerably increase our knowledge of both the Moenkopi and the Chinle-Dockum fish assemblages. We are obligated to Dr. S. P. Welles for permission to describe the coelacanth remains from the Moenkopi formation, and to Dr. Donald Baird for the loan of a pterygoid of Rhabdoderma elegans in the Princeton University Geological Museum. Mr. Colin Patterson has kindly supplied us with unpublished drawings of the basisphenoid of Macropoma praecursor based on a specimen in the British Museum (Natural History). Sketches of the basisphenoid of Undina cirinensis and Coccoderma suevicum, also not yet published, were generously provided by Mr. Rolf Schweizer from speci-mens in the Geologisch-paliiontologisches Institut, Tuibingen. Dr. Erik Jarvik kindly furnished illustrations of the neurocranium of Neside