Calamopleurus Africanus Fish Jaw 74mm

A very finely preserved jaw section of the bony fish taxon Halecomorphi. This extinct fish has only one living relative the bowfin bony fish. The sole living Halecomorph (Amia calva). However the group contains many extinct species in several families. This specimen jaw fragment was discovered in the Kem Kem formation of southern Morocco.

The Kem Kem formation has revealed much information on the dinosaurs and flora and fauna of what is today the Northern Sahara of Africa. This fragmentary jaw is a very good study piece, very stable and solid exhibiting well detail morphology. View all the photographic illustrations to reveal more. The fossil jaw has been identified by the Natural History Museum, London, U.K. and is supplied with a label from the British Museum of Natural History, Department of Palaeontology.

The discovery of this Calamopleurus fish in Morocco which is twinned to the Brazilian Calamopleurus and again alights to the amalgamation of West Gondwana by continental collision during the Brasiliano/Pan-African orogenies. A good fish fossil element which merits further research and study.

The specimen originating from the lower Cretaceous fossil bed of the Taouz oases in Morocco. The fossil layers in the Kem Kem formation are around 200 feet thick. The layers at the point where this fossil fish was unearthed are marly carbonate overlaying a carbonate escarpment. The ferruginous sandstones lie midway up this section. This area was previously known as the continental Intercalaire (Lavocat, 1954; Joly, 1962; Tabaste, 1963) and is now more well known as the Kem Kem beds (Sereno al.,1996).