Discovery of a juvenile coelacanth in the lower Cretaceous, Crato formation, northeastern Brazil

An almost complete specimen of a juvenile coelacanth, measuring 70 mm total length, from the Aptian age Nova Olinda Member of the Crate Formation (Ara ripe Basin, Brazil), is here recorded and referred to the genus Axelrodicht hys. This is the first record of a Coelacanthidae in this Cretaceous geolog ical formation. Although the presence of a juvenile Axelrodichthys does not elucidate the reproductive strategy in this taxon, its small size, when co mpared to the very large embryos of Latimeria (300 mm), suggests a disparit y between these large coelacanth genera, whose adults grow up to over one m etre.