A CRETACEOUS NOTOPTERID (PISCES, OSTEOGLOSSOMORPHA) FROM MOROCCO

A new species of a fossil teleost, Palaeonotopterus green-woodi gen. e t sp. nov., is described, based on a single incomplete braincase from the late Albian or early Cenomanian of Taouz, south-eastern Morocco. T he species is referred to the Notopteridae on the basis of evidence of a supraorbital branch of the otic sensory canal. Palaeonotopterus is autapomorphic in the presence of basioccipital processes and a complex occipital region. In other respects it appears plesiomorphic and is p laced as a stem-species to crown group notopterids.