‘Bizarre’ fish discovered in Swiss Alps
Scientists have discovered a fossil of a new species of Coelacanth fish in the Swiss Alps. A team of paleontologists found it on a pass near the mountain resort of Davos in southeastern Switzerland in 2014 and 2015.
The fish skeletons from the Middle Triassic, which are on display at the Natural History Museum of Geneva, are around 240 million years old, according to the museum.
Lionel Cavin, curator specialist of fossil fish, said it had taken some time to establish what kind of species it is. Scientists named it after a fellow scientist and patron, Foreyia maxkuhni.
A detailed description was published in the online Scientific Reports journal on Friday.
It is believed that the fossil find could open up new pathways to study the evolutionary process, notably about vertebrates.
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