Rieppelia, a very strange Triassic coelacanth

[Halichoeres]

This has been out a couple of weeks, but in case you missed it, another weird coelacanth from the Alps, near the Swiss-Italian border. It's from slightly earlier than the equally strange Foreyia, and from about 100 km away. Meet Rieppelia heinzfurreri, named for 1) Olivier Rieppel, the Field Museum paleontologist perhaps most famous for his book on turtle evolution; and, 2) Heinz Furrer, who has worked on all kinds of Swiss Triassic fossils, like ichthyosaurs.


Top: the slab containing the holotype
Middle: an interpretation of the bones
Bottom: a reconstruction of the animal
There is also a color illustration in  the article.

Open access in Scientific Reports: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-37849-9

[Faelrin]

It looks like a chibi. It's so cute. I want a plushie of this now, lol.

[Halichoeres]

It looks like a chibi. It's so cute. I want a plushie of this now, lol.

Ha, yeah! If TST Advance were still making new products...

It was only 30 cm long so a smallish plush could be life size!