Extinct genus of cartilaginous fish
Maghriboselache is an extinct genus of cladoselachid symmoriiform fish that lived 369 million years ago during the Late Devonian (middle Famennian stage) of Morocco. The genus contains a single species, M. mohmezanei. "Maghriboselache" represents the first cladoselachid to be discovered with significant details of the jaws, braincase and even endocranium. Along with "Cladoselache", it shares a unique and distinctive tooth and upper jaw morphology.
Discovery and naming.
"Maghriboselache" was discovered in the eastern parts of the Anti-Atlas mountain range. Most specimens were found in the Thylacocephalan layer. The genus was described by Klug, Coates, Frey, Greif, Jobbins, Pohle, Lagnaoui, Haouz and Ginter in 2023.
The generic name, ""Maghriboselache", is derived from "al Maghrib"", the Arabic word for Morocco, combined with "σέλαχος" (""selachos"), the Greek word for cartilaginous fish. The specific name, "mohamezanei"", honors Moha Mezane, a French amateur geologist and fossil hunter, who discovered some "Maghriboselache" fossils.
Description.
"Maghriboselache" is known from multiple preserved fossil specimens preserving most of its skeletal features. Some of these fossils are preserved three-dimensionally. It is unique from other cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes) due to its broad snout and nostril placement.
The genus has distally broad, flat, and strap-like radial pectoral fins and a cleaver-shaped palatoquadrate with an optic process shorter than palatine process.
The size of "Maghriboselache" specimens ranges between in length, but most are slightly more than long.
Teeth.
The tooth fossils of "Maghriboselache" are only partially visible. The teeth on the Meckel's cartilage of this genus are nearly equally distanced with a 10% gap between each tooth.
Classification.
Klug "et al". (2023) recovered "Maghriboselache" as a cladoselachid member of the chondrichthyian clade Symmoriiformes, as the sister taxon to "Cladoselache". The Cladoselachidae is in turn sister to the clade containing Holocephali and Symmoriida. The results of their phylogenetic analyses are shown in the cladogram below:
References.
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