''Foreyia'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

coelacanth Coelacanths ( ) are an ancient group of lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii) in the class Actinistia. As sarcopterygians, they are more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (the terrestrial vertebrates including living amphibians, reptiles, bi ...

lobe-finned fish Sarcopterygii (; )—sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii ()—is a clade (traditionally a class or subclass) of vertebrate animals which includes a group of bony fish commonly referred to as lobe-finned fish. These vertebrates ar ...

which lived during the Middle

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

in what is now

Canton of Graubünden The Grisons (; ) or Graubünden (),Names include: * ; * Romansh: ** ** ** ** ** **; * ; * ; * . See also other names. more formally the Canton of the Grisons or the Canton of Graubünden, is one of the twenty-six cantons of Switzerland. I ...

, Switzerland. It contains a single species ''F. maxkuhni''.

Naming

The generic name honors the late Peter L. Forey for his contributions to the study of

fishes. The specific epithet honors Max Kuhn, who had been instrumental in preparing fossils from Monte San Giorgio for 12 years, including the holotype and paratype specimens of ''F. maxkuhni''.

Description and classification

''F. maxkuhni'' is an aberrant-looking member of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Latimeriidae Latimeriidae is the only extant family of coelacanths, an ancient lineage of lobe-finned fish. It contains two extant species in the genus ''Latimeria'', found in deep waters off the coasts of southern Africa and east-central Indonesia. In additi ...

, with a proportionally enormous head, a curved, beak-like

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

, an underbite, and a low, horn-like point on its otherwise dome-like head. Despite such a bizarre appearance, phylogenetic analyses squarely place ''F. maxkuhni'' as the

sister taxon 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 ...

of '' Ticinepomis'', another latimeriid also found in the same strata. The two latimeriids share numerous anatomical traits with each other, strongly suggesting a close relation. ''Foreyia'', ''Ticinepomis'' and ''

Rieppelia ''Rieppelia'' is an extinct genus of latimeriid coelacanth fish from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland, in what is now Monte San Giorgio. It contains a single species, ''R. heinzfurreri''. Naming The generic name is given in honor of Dr. Oliv ...

'' are grouped in the subfamily Ticinepomiinae. ''Foreyia'' in cladogram after Toriño ''et al''., 2021.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q43462700 Latimeriidae Prehistoric lobe-finned fish genera Triassic bony fish Triassic fish of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2017