- Project title
- Early evolution of the ray-finned fishes
- Description of the project
- Actinopterygii (ray-finned bony fishes) nowadays constitute the most speciose group of backboned animals. Despite their long evolutionary history and rich fossil record, important aspects of their evolutionary history remain poorly understood. It is estimated that modern representatives of major living lineages were already present in the Triassic, in the aftermath of the catastrophic End-Permian Extinction. Yet, the fossil record from this or previous eras has offered limited insights into their early evolutionary histories. Most Early Triassic fossiliferous localities largely yield cosmopolitan fossils of uncertain phylogenetic affinities. Once studied properly, these fossils can be pivotal for connecting living actinopterygian lineages to their fossil counterparts. Field expeditions conducted by the CNRS in the 1960s in the key Early Triassic localities in Spitsbergen, Svalbard Archipelago, yielded numerous fish specimens, which form an integral, yet understudied part of the MNHN fish collections. This material is exquisitely preserved in 3D and can offer unique insights into phylogenetically and morphofunctionally important characters of internal anatomy. This project is aimed at examining, for the first time through non-destructive μCT, the endoskeletal anatomy of two key genera from Spitsbergen, †Boreosomus and †Birgeria, which also constitute ubiquitous components of Triassic marine faunas at a global scale.
Works done by the platform AST-RX
