''Tselfatia'' is an extinct genus of Cretaceous

bony fish Osteichthyes ( ; ), also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a Biodiversity, diverse clade of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondricht ...

. Originally described from (and named after) Djebl Tselfat in

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, it has since been discovered at sites in several other countries ( Texas/USA,

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Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

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and the former

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

). The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

, ''Tselfatia formosa'', was named and described in 1943 by

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

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 Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia, th ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

.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 managed and published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Paleontological Society. Indexing The ''Journal of Paleontology ...

''. 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 Taxa named by Camille Arambourg {{paleo-rayfinned-fish-stub