A new osteolepiform fish from the Lower Carboniferous Raymond Formation, Drummond Basin, Queensland

Cladarosymblema narrienense gen. et sp. nov. (Megalichthyidae, Osteolepiformes), herein described from the Lower Carboniferous Raymond Formation, Drummond Basin, Queensland, Australia, is the first megalichthyid described from the Southern Hemisphere. The holotype of C. narrienense is preserved in siltstone and is a crushed specimen with skull, mandibles and anterior postcranial elements still together. Paratypes are isolated parts of the skeleton which have been etched with acetic or monochloracetic acid from limestone immediately underlying the siltstone. As a consequence of the detail preserved in these specimens, C. narrienense is the best known member of the Megalichthyidae. The sedimentary unit in which the fossils are preserved was probably deposited on a floodplain, in a semi-persistent lagoon which supported abundant calcareous algae and a rich fauna of actinopterygians, acanthodians and crossopterygians. -from Authors