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A recent collection of actinopterygian fossil fishes from a previously unreported locality in the Cenomanian or Turonian of southeastern Morocco includes a single specimen of a macrosemiid fish. Macrosemiids are more common in Jurassic and Early Cretaceous deposits, with the previously known range of the family being Late Triassic through Aptian or Albian. This discovery therefore extends the temporal range of the family into the Late Cretaceous. Moreover, macrosemiids had not previously been reported from northern Africa or the Moroccan area of the Tethys basin; therefore, this fossil also increases the geographical range of the family. The Moroccan macrosemiid is described in a new genus and species, Agoultichthys chattertoni. A phylogenetic analysis places it basal to all other genera of the family with the exception of Notagogus. Diagnostic characters of the new species include the high number of scales laterally along the body and the greater number of dorsal fin rays than in other members of the family.
A euselachian assemblage was recovered from the middle Cenomanian Dunvegan Formation situated in northwestern Alberta. This assemblage is the most northern described within the Western Interior Seaway and provides an important insight into the euselachian faunal diversity of this little-known region of the seaway. Despite its high paleolatitude, the assemblage contains a number of elasmobranch taxa, including Hybodus , Squalicorax , Archaeolamna , Cretodus , Dallasiella , and Cretoxyrhina . The Dunvegan assemblage also contains the first known reports from Canada of the odontaspid shark Johnlongia parvidens , the cretoxyrhinid shark Protolamna carteri , and the ray Pseudohypolophus mcnultyi . This assemblage extends the northern geographical range of all taxa. Preliminary comparisons with other middle Cenomanian Western Interior Seaway assemblages show that the core composition of the Dunvegan assemblage is remarkably similar to that of other time-equivalent assemblages; however, conspicuously absent are species that are exceedingly common in other localities situated farther south. We suggest that absence of these taxa from the Dunvegan localities may be caused by a temperature intolerance associated with latitude and sea-water circulation patterns, or by an inability to inhabit environments that exhibit salinity variation.
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