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| Whiteia anniae Xu, Dai, Tan, Yuan, Sun, Liao, Geng et Song, in Dai, Xu, Tan, Yuan, Sun, Liao, Geng et Song, 2025. |
Abstract
Coelacanths (e.g., Latimeria) are a curious group of sarcopterygian fishes that survive over hundreds of millions of years and are important in evolutionary biology. In the Early Triassic, coelacanths reached their peak of taxonomic diversity but had only patchy fossil record in Asia. Here, we report the discovery of a new species of the coelacanth genus Whiteia on the basis of two specimens from the late Smithian (~ 249 Ma) marine deposits exposed in eastern Anhui, China. The discovery considerably extends the spatial range of Whiteia in the Early Triassic, and documents the oldest species of the genus in Asia, predating the previously oldest record of whiteiids in this continent by nine million years. The new coelacanth with an estimated total length of at least 420 mm, larger than most of other coelacanths (except Rebellatrix) at its age, represents the largest whiteiid named so far from the Early Triassic and provides an important addition for our understanding the evolution of this major Triassic clade of coelacanths.
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| Paleogeographical distribution of Whiteia in the Early Triassic and reconstructions of head and pectoral girdle in two selected species. (a), 1, Whiteia woodwardi, W. tuberculata, and W. uyenoteruyai, Madagascar; 2, W. africana, South Africa; 3, W. gigantea, Texas (USA); 4, Whiteia sp., British Columbia (Canada); 5, W. neilseni, East Greenland; 6, Whiteia anniae sp. nov. Anhui, China. (b), reconstruction of head and pectoral girdle of W. woodwardi. |
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| Whiteia anniae sp. nov. in right lateral view, Holotype (CHU 2016). (a), Whole specimen. (b), closeup of the calcified lung (indicated by lower arrows) and lateral line (indicated by upper arrows). (c), a scale near the head. (d), anterior tips of jaws with arrows indicating the fangs in anterior coronoids. (e), denticles on the last ray of the anterior dorsal fin. |
Systematic palaeontology
Osteichthyes Huxley, 1880.
Sarcopterygii Romer, 1955.
Actinistia Cope, 1871.
Coelacanthiformes Huxley, 1861.
Whiteiidae Schultze, 1993.
Whiteia Moy-Thomas, 193520.
Whiteia anniae Xu, Dai, Tan, Yuan, Sun, Liao, Geng et Song sp. nov.
Etymology. The specific epithet honors the British fossil hunter Mary Anning and her Chinese fan Anni Dai, whose family contributes to the collection of fossils described here.
Holotype. CHU 2016 (Fig. 2). A laterally compressed specimen with the anal fin and caudal missing, stored in the fossil collection of Chaohu University (CHU).
Locality and horizon. He County, Anhui Province; Helongshan Formation, Smithian, Olenekian, Early Triassic.
Diagnosis. A large species of Whiteia characterized by the following set of characters (autapomorphies, those unique among Whiteia, identified with an asterisk): presence of six enlarged conical teeth on premaxilla; presence of coronoid fangs (*); presence of contact of first supraorbital with posterior portion of anterior parietal; anterior extremity of preorbital at level of anterior margin of anterior parietal (*); trapezoidal opercle with rounded anteroventral corner; 49 neural arches and 22 haemal arches in vertebral column; eight rays in anterior dorsal fin; pointed denticles associated with rays of anterior dorsal fin; 14 rays and 15 radials, and 12 rays and 13 radials respectively in dorsal and ventral lobes of caudal fin (*); and scale ornamentation consisting of about 20 elongate ridges converging midline posteriorly (*).
Qing-Hua Dai, Guang-Hui Xu, Feng-Ting Tan, Zhi-Wei Yuan, Cheng-Kai Sun, Jun-ling Liao, Bing-He Geng and Hai-Jun Song. 2025. A New coelacanth (Actinistia, Sarcopterygii) from the Early Triassic of Anhui, China. Scientific Reports. 15, 36320. DOI: doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-20229-w [17 October 2025]
