Fossil loricariid in Africa

[Silurus]

Brito, PM, DB Dutheil, P Gueriau, P Keith, G Carnevale, M Britto, FJ Meunier, B Khalloufi, A King, PF de Amorim & WJEM Costa, 2024. A Saharan fossil and the dawn of Neotropical armoured catfishes in Gondwana. Gondwana Research doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2024.04.008.

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
Siluriformes are considered as primarily freshwater and have frequently been a model for the study of historical biogeography. Among catfishes, the most diverse clade is the Loricarioidei, a Neotropical group for which the fossil record extends back to the Palaeocene of Argentina.
Here we describe a fossil from the early Late Cretaceous of Morocco, exhibiting typical morphological traits of the Loricariidae. A phylogenetic analysis integrating morphological characters with a multigene database for the main loricarioid lineages and outgroups highly supports inclusion of the fossil within the Loricariidae. A time-calibrated analysis corroborates the origin of loricarioids at about 112 MYA.
The presence of this loricariid in Africa provides evidence that loricarioids have diversified before the separation of Africa and South America. The Moroccan loricariid shows an ancient evolutionary history that, in Africa, ended in the Late Cretaceous but persisted in South America, later surviving the K/Pg extinction.

[Jools]

This is interesting and I note the name Afrocascudo saharaensis for the fossil.

Thanks for posting,

Jools

[Kirin]

I'm surprised this paper hasn't got more publicity. It's fascinating and kind of changes what we knew about the group.