Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature 59

An Early Cretaceous (late Albian) halecomorph (? Ionoscopiformes) fish from the Toolebuc Formation of the Eromanga Basin, Queensland

Citation

Bartholomai, A. 2015. An Early Cretaceous (late Albian) halecomorph (? Ionoscopiformes) fish from the Toolebuc Formation of the Eromanga Basin, Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum - Nature 59: 61–74. https://doi.org/10.17082/j.2204-1478.59.2015.2014-5

Accepted

14 Dec 2014

Published online

8 May 2015

Peer reviewed

Yes

DOI

https://doi.org/10.17082/j.2204-1478.59.2015.2014-5

Keywords

Halecomorphi, Ionoscopiformes, Canaryichthys rozefeldsi, ‘Aspidorhynchus’, Oshunia, Macrepistius, Early Cretaceous (late Albian), Toolebuc Formation, Eromanga Basin.

Abstract 

The partial neurocranium of a relatively small, halecomorph fish is described as Canaryichthys rozefeldsi gen. et sp. nov. and represents the first possible ionoscopiform from the Cretaceous of Australia. The specimen was collected from the marine Toolebuc Formation of the Eromanga Basin, near Boulia, in the central west of Queensland, deposited during the Early Cretaceous (late Albian) when an epeiric sea covered much of the centre of the State. It is undistorted and preserved in 3-dimensions but lacks all but the cranial vault. Canaryichthys has many features in common with the enigmatic English Jurassic ‘caturid’ neurocranium redescribed and figured by Patterson (1975) as ‘Aspidorhynchus’ sp., (originally described by Rayner, 1948) and also appears to have affinity with the Early Cretaceous (Aptian), Oshunia, from South America