A Late Permian fish shoal: first recorded diverse actinopterygian fish fauna from the Lower Beaufort Group of South Africa

The rocks of the fluviate Beaufort Group are well known for their wealth an d diversity of mammal-like reptile fossils, which have been used to constru ct eight biostratigraphic assemblage zones.' Fossil fish occur throughout t he Beaufort Group and could be biostratigraphically significant, but until now they have not been sufficiently well researched. Three sites presenting 'shoals' of complete fossil fishes are known from the Beaufort Group. The Bekkerskraal site in the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone has a well-documented and diverse fish fauna,(2-7) however the two other sites, both in the Lower Beaufort, have not been studied. The hilltop locality on the farm Blourug, Victoria West District, was referred to by Le Roux and Keyser,(8) and is s ituated stratigraphically below the second site, which is on the farm Wilge rbosch, Graaff-Reinet District, in the Dicynodon Assemblage Zone.(9) This i s a preliminary report on a newly recognised diverse fossil fish fauna from the Wilgerbosch site.