Scaumenacia curta Whiteaves 1881

Taxonomy

Lungfish

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sarcopterygii Romer 1955
Order: Dipnomorpha Ahlberg 1991
Family: Phaneropleuridae Huxley 1861
Genus: Scaumenacia
Species: Scaumenacia curta
Author Citation Whiteaves 1881

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Paleozoic
Period: Devonian
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Late
International Age: Frasnian

Stratigraphy

Upper Devonian Miguasha Group
Escuminac Formation

Provenance

Collector: T. Bastelberger
Date Collected: 08/09/1968
Acquired by: Field Collection

Location

Miguasha Fossil Site
Charleton-sur-Mer
Quebec
Canada

• devonian
• escuminac bay
• frasnian
• lungfish
• miguasha
• sarcopterygii
• scaumenacia

Comments

A juvenile lungfish (11cm) from the famous Miguasha fossil site, now a UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

Taxonomy from Fossilworks.org.

Emended genus diagnosis from Cloutier 1996, p. 199: " Maximum depth of body one-sixth of its total length. First dorsal fin low, with maximum height from one-eighth to one-seventh its length, originating at the level of the fourth supraneural. First dorsal fin 16% of total length without ossified radials;  second dorsal fin 30% of total length, and higher than first dorsal fin, itsmaximum height amounting to two-thirds of maximum body depth.
Traquair (1893) erected the genus Scaumenacia based on the presence of a "double dorsal fin"; however, the presence of two dorsal fins is plesio-
morphic and therefore non-distinctive for the genus. Hussakof (1912, p. 136) provided a series of distinctive features for Scaumenacia, some of which
are used in the amended diagnosis."

Diagnosis for the spcies is identical.
Line drawing from Cloutier 1996, p. 207:

Identified by oilshale.

References:

J. F. Whiteaves (1881) On some remarkable fossil fishes from the Devonian rocks of Scaumenac Bay, in the Province of Quebec. Journal of Natural History 8(44):159-162.

O. P. Hay (1902) Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America. Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey 179:1-868.

R. Cloutier (1996) Chapter 18 Dipnoi (Akinetia: Sarcopterygii) in: Devonian Fishes and Plants of Miguasha, Quebec, Canada. Publisher: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, München, Editors: Hans-Peter Schultze, Richard Cloutier.