| Foreyia Temporal range: Lower Ladinian,
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| Fossil and digram of the skeleton of Foreyia maxkuhni | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinistia |
| Order: | Coelacanthiformes |
| Suborder: | Latimerioidei |
| Family: | Latimeriidae |
| Genus: | †Foreyia Cavin et al., 2017 |
| Type species | |
| Foreyia maxkuhni Cavin et al., 2017
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Foreyia is an extinct genus of coelacanth lobe-finned fish which lived during the Middle Triassic period in what is now Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It contains a single species F. maxkuhni.1
Naming
The generic name honors the late Peter L. Forey for his contributions to the study of coelacanth fishes. The specific epithet honors Max Kuhn, who had been instrumental in preparing fossils from Monte San Giorgio for 12 years, including the holotype and paratype specimens of F. maxkuhni.1
Description and classification
F. maxkuhni is an aberrant-looking member of the family Latimeriidae, with a proportionally enormous head, a curved, beak-like maxilla, an underbite, and a low, horn-like point on its otherwise dome-like head. Despite such a bizarre appearance, phylogenetic analyses squarely place F. maxkuhni as the sister taxon of Ticinepomis, another latimeriid also found in the same strata. The two latimeriids share numerous anatomical traits with each other, strongly suggesting a close relation.1 Foreyia, Ticinepomis and Rieppelia are grouped in the subfamily Ticinepomiinae.2
Foreyia in cladogram after Toriño et al., 2021.3
| Latimeriidae |
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References
References
- Cavin, L.; Mennecart, B.; Obrist, C.; Costeur, L.; Furrer, H. (2017). "Heterochronic evolution explains novel body shape in a Triassic coelacanth from Switzerland". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 13695. Bibcode:2017NatSR...713695C. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-13796-0. PMC 5651877. PMID 29057913.
- Ferrante, C.; Cavin, L. (2023). "Early Mesozoic burst of morphological disparity in the slow-evolving coelacanth fish lineage". Scientific Reports. 13 (1): 11356. Bibcode:2023NatSR..1311356F. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-37849-9. PMC 10345187. PMID 37443368.
- Toriño, Pablo; Soto, Matías; Perea, Daniel (2021-12-02). "A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of coelacanth fishes (Sarcopterygii, Actinistia) with comments on the composition of the Mawsoniidae and Latimeriidae: evaluating old and new methodological challenges and constraints". Historical Biology. 33 (12): 3423–3443. Bibcode:2021HBio...33.3423T. doi:10.1080/08912963.2020.1867982. ISSN 0891-2963. S2CID 233942585.