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Microstructure of polypterid scales (Osteichthyes: Actinopterygii: Polypteridae) from the Upper Cretaceous Bahariya Formation, Bahariya Oasis, Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Joshua B. Smith ,
Barbara S. Grandstaff  and
Medhat Said Abdel-Ghani
Joshua B. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, 1 Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1169, St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899,
Barbara S. Grandstaff
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, 240 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia 19104-6316
Medhat Said Abdel-Ghani
Affiliation:
Egyptian Geological Museum, Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority, Athar El Nabi, Maadi, Cairo
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Abstract

Histology of newly discovered ganoid scales from the lower Bahariya Formation, in the Bahariya Oasis of western Egypt, confirms the presence of polypterid osteichthyans in this early Cenomanian locality. These fossils, occurring in the ~97 million-year-old lower Bahariya sequences, are among the earliest known polypterids. the Bahariya scales exhibit four tissues: ganoin, dentine, isopedine (elasmodin), and a basal plate of cellular bone, confirming their inclusion within the Polypteriformes. They have a discontinuous ganoin layer, present only as highly variable ridges and bosses. Dentine along the edges of the ganoin ridges appears to have undergone active remodeling, suggesting that the ganoin ridges represent the remnants of a continuous ganoin cover. Modern polypterids inhabit exclusively freshwater environments. Polypterids are not rare in the lower Bahariya Formation. Their presence in these coastal sediments suggests that freshwater habitats lay close to the site of deposition of this sequence during the early Cenomanian.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 80 , Issue 6 , November 2006 , pp. 1179 - 1185
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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