An Early Cretaceous Record of the Mawsoniid Coelacanth <em>Axelrodichthys</em> from Niger

Cretaceous Gondwanan coelacanths in the Family Mawsoniidae include two genera – Mawsonia and Axelrodichthys – that show a related biogeographic pattern of occurrences in Brazil and Africa. We report here on the presence of Axelrodichthys in Niger based on a partial skull roof and partial extrascapular series from the Aptian ‘Fish Mountain’ site at Ingal (or Ingall) in central western Niger. Assignment of the specimen to Axelrodichthys is based on the presence of a median extrascapular along the posterior margin of the skull roof, an element that is absent in the sister-genus Mawsonia. This record from Niger fits into the broader pattern of the genus vicariantly co-occurring in both northeastern Brazil and northwestern Africa, and then subsequently expanding its range across Africa during the Cretaceous – reaching Niger at an intermediate stage – and then eventually dispersing as far east as Madagascar and as far north as what is now southern Europe by the Late Cretaceous.