Phylogeny of fossil coelacanths

[Halichoeres]

A recent paper does a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of coelacanths. This graphic gives a nice overview of the relationships, temporal span, and variety of body shapes that coelacanths have exhibited through their history.

But please, toy companies, please keep including the modern gombessa as a stand-in for all extinct coelacanths.

Paywall, but message me for a pdf (generously furnished by the author, this is a good reminder that most scientists are very happy to do so): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2020.1867982

[Halichoeres]

In other coelacanth news, here's a new specimen of Mawsonia from near the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary in Uruguay, with a detailed reconstruction of the head:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2020.103054

[Smilodon P.]

In other coelacanth news, here's a new specimen of Mawsonia from near the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary in Uruguay, with a detailed reconstruction of the head:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2020.103054

I watched an interview with one of the authors, PabloToriño, last week, in which he talked about coelacanths and showed this finding. But I didn't realize that it had already been published.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABnHw-raPMY

(Crossing my fingers for some company to do a Foreyia maxkuhni figure someday.)

[Halichoeres]

I think technically it hasn't been published because the paper version of the journal issue hasn't been put together, but the pdf is already online (as always, anyone who wants it, pm me your email address).

(Crossing my fingers for some company to do a Foreyia maxkuhni figure someday.)

Yeah, that would be fantastic! Possibly the weirdest coelacanth known.

[SBell]

So looking at those silhouettes, and how most coelacanth figures are Latimeria (regardless of age) I realized that this one doesn't share the same shape:

(I really hope the photo works)

Not sure if it fits as any of the other shapes, but it certainly stands out as different.

[Halichoeres]

I dunno, it sure is wearing Latimeria colors. I guess it could almost be a Diplocercides except that it doesn't have the eponymous double tail. But to me this looks just like a not very well made Latimeria.

[SBell]

I dunno, it sure is wearing Latimeria colors. I guess it could almost be a Diplocercides except that it doesn't have the eponymous double tail. But to me this looks just like a not very well made Latimeria.

I don't usually look at colour...and yeah, not well made for any particular species. But the pointed snout is different, definitely not our modern coelacanth. If only they hadn't messed up the tail.

[Halichoeres]

Understandable, but to me the color is really irksome because every fossil coelacanth we know is from a wildly different environment from the one that the gombessa occupies. So there's no way they'd have had the same coloration.

[sauroid]

thanks for this thread Halichoeres

[SBell]

Understandable, but to me the color is really irksome because every fossil coelacanth we know is from a wildly different environment from the one that the gombessa occupies. So there's no way they'd have had the same coloration.

Definitely. Even the updated Kaiyodo axelrodichthys is more of a brown version of the modern (which, even the Indonesian isn't as brown as sometimes depicted).

There might be a few possible colour variations available, it's not like fish overall are conservative in their palettes

[Halichoeres]

I actually think the 2nd version is based on the juvenile coloration of Lates japonicus. That's what it looks like to my eye, anyway, and it's a much better ecological analogue.

[SBell]

I actually think the 2nd version is based on the juvenile coloration of Lates japonicus. That's what it looks like to my eye, anyway, and it's a much better ecological analogue.

Of course. Makes sense.