The fossil record of Angola

[Halichoeres]

Springer has just published a new book called Biodiversity of Angola, and the chapter written by Mateus et al. on the country's fossil biodiversity is freely available online. I didn't know this, but their fossil record stretches from the present clear back to Precambrian stromatolites. Some of the interesting stuff is from the opening of the Atlantic Ocean during the Cretaceous, a period from which more than 100 vertebrate taxa and more than 600 mollusk taxa are known from Angola. That includes the ones in this painting by Fabio Pastori:


Featuring the sauropod Angolatitan, the turtle Angolachelys, the mosasaurs Tylosaurus and Angolasaurus, the ammonite Protexanites, an elasmosaurid, and an orectolobiform shark.


Chapter (open access): https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-03083-4_4