Coelacanth from the Triassic of Switzerland

[Halichoeres]

People have been digging fossils out of the Meride Limestone in Switzerland for 160 years, but this is the first time anyone has turned up a coelacanth. It's a juvenile, so maybe coelacanths of this time and place preferred deeper waters as adults. The authors refer it to the hitherto-poorly-known genus Heptanema. Pretty nice fossil, even if a lot of the face and skull bones are cracked.



Open access: https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/RIPS/article/view/10771/10121

[Halichoeres]

Another coelacanth from nearby in NE Italy:


Scale bar 1 cm

This small specimen is too incomplete to identify confidently, but it shows that coelacanths were reasonably common around this time, although there still aren't a lot of remains from large individuals.

Paper (open access): https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/RIPS/article/view/11552/10888