''Tselfatia'' is an extinct genus of Cretaceous

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...

. Originally described from (and named after) Djebl Tselfat in Morocco, it has since been discovered at sites in several other countries ( Texas/USA,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, Mexico, Italy and the former Yugoslavia). The type species, ''Tselfatia formosa'', was named and described in 1944 by

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

paleontologist

Camille Arambourg Camille Arambourg ( February 3, 1885– November 19, 1969) was a French vertebrate paleontologist. He conducted extensive field work in North Africa. In the 1950s he argued against the prevailing model of Neanderthals as brutish and simian. Du ...

. A second species, ''T. dalmatica'', was named in 1980 from the Dalmatian Coast of Yugoslavia.Bardack, David & Teller-Marshall, Susan (1980). ''Tselfatia'', a Tethyan Cretaceous teleost; first records from North America and Yugoslavia. ''

Journal of Paleontology The ''Journal of Paleontology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the field of paleontology. It is published by the Paleontological Society. Indexing The ''Journal of Paleontology'' is indexed in: *BIOSIS Previews *Science Citatio ...

''. 54 (5): 1075–1083. The enormous dorsal fin as well as the large anal fin both feature one much enlarged ray, characteristic for the genus. These fish are never common and more work needs to be done on the known specimens.

References

External links

Bony fish in the online Sepkoski Database
Tselfatiiformes Fossil taxa described in 1944 {{paleo-rayfinned-fish-stub