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Latimeriidae is the only extant
Latimeriidae is the only extant family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
of coelacanth
The coelacanths ( ) are fish belonging to the order Actinistia that includes two extant species in the genus ''Latimeria'': the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (''Latimeria chalumnae''), primarily found near the Comoro Islands off the east coast ...
s, an ancient lineage of lobe-finned fish
Sarcopterygii (; ) — sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii () — is a taxon (traditionally a class or subclass) of the bony fishes known as the lobe-finned fishes. The group Tetrapoda, a mostly terrestrial superclass includ ...
. It contains two extant species in the genus ''Latimeria
''Latimeria'' is a rare genus of fish which contains the only living species of coelacanth. It includes two Extant taxon, extant species: the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (''Latimeria chalumnae'') and the Indonesian coelacanth (''Latimeria menado ...
'', found in deep waters off the coasts of southern Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and east-central Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. In addition, several fossil genera are known from the Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...
of Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, the Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, and the southeastern United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, dating back to the Triassic
The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...
.
The latimeriids are thought to have always been an exclusively marine group. They may have originated in the western Tethys Sea
The Tethys Ocean ( el, Τηθύς ''Tēthús''), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean that covered most of the Earth during much of the Mesozoic Era and early Cenozoic Era, located between the ancient continents ...
, as many of the earliest species are known from areas that it formerly covered. The largest known member of the family, the Late Cretaceous ''Megalocoelacanthus
''Megalocoelacanthus dobiei'' is an extinct species of giant latimeriidae, latimeriid coelacanth Sarcopterygii, lobe-finned fish which lived during the Lower Campanian epoch until possibly the early Maastrichtian in the Late Cretaceous period in ...
,'' may have reached 4.5 metres in length. The Latimeriidae are thought to be the sister group
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and t ...
to the Mawsoniidae
Mawsoniidae is an extinct family of prehistoric coelacanth fishes which lived during the Triassic to Cretaceous periods. Members of the family are distinguished from their sister group, the Latimeriidae (which contains the living coelacanths of t ...
, an extinct family of coelacanths that survived until the Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...
, inhabited both freshwater and marine habitats, and contained some very large species. Together, both comprise the suborder Latimerioidei
The coelacanths ( ) are fish belonging to the order Actinistia that includes two Extant taxon, extant species in the genus ''Latimeria'': the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (''Latimeria chalumnae''), primarily found near the Comoro Islands off t ...
.
Cladogram after Toriño et al. 2021.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3218487 Extant Triassic first appearances Fish families Taxa named by Lev Berg