Whiteia

Whiteia
Temporal range: Triassic
Whiteia woodwardi fossil
Skull diagram of W. woodwardi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinistia
Order: Coelacanthiformes
Family: †Whiteiidae
Genus: †Whiteia
Moy-Thomas, 1935
Type species
†Whiteia woodwardi
Moy-Thomas, 1935
Other species
  • †W. africana (Broom 1905)
  • †W. anniae Xu et al., 2025
  • †W.? banffensis (Lambe, 1916)
  • †W. gigantea Brownstein, 2023
  • †W. nielseni Forey, 1998
  • †W. oishii Yabumoto & Brito, 2016
  • †W. tuberculata Moy-Thomas, 1935
  • †W. uyenoteruyai Yabumoto et al., 2019

Whiteia is an extinct genus of prehistoric coelacanth fish which lived during the Triassic period. It is named after Errol White.

Taxonomy

The type species is Whiteia woodwardi from the Early Triassic of Madagascar. Other Early Triassic species are W. anniae, W. tuberculata, W. uyenoteruyai (both Madagascar), W. nielseni (East Greenland), W.? banffensis (Alberta, Canada), W. africana (South Africa) and W. anniae (Anhui, China). Two species, W. oishii (West Timor, Indonesia) and W. gigantea (Texas, United States), are of Late Triassic age.

The nominal species Coelacanthus evolutus Beltan, 1980 is a junior synonym of Whiteia woodwardi.

References

  1. 1 2 Romano, Carlo; Koot, Martha B.; Kogan, Ilja; Brayard, Arnaud; Minikh, Alla V.; Brinkmann, Winand; Bucher, Hugo; Kriwet, Jürgen (2016). "Permian-Triassic Osteichthyes (bony fishes): diversity dynamics and body size evolution". Biological Reviews. 91 (1): 106–147. doi:10.1111/brv.12161. PMID 25431138. S2CID 5332637.
  2. ↑ Dai, Qing-Hua; Xu, Guang-Hui; Tan, Feng-Ting; Yuan, Zhi-Wei; Sun, Cheng-Kai; Liao, Jun-ling; Geng, Bing-He; Song, Hai-Jun (2025-10-17). "A new coelacanth (Actinistia, Sarcopterygii) from the Early Triassic of Anhui, China". Scientific Reports. 15 (1): 36320. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-20229-w. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 12534446.
  3. ↑ Dai, Q.-H.; Xu, G.-H.; Tan, F.-T.; Yuan, Z.-W.; Sun, C.-K.; Liao, J.; Geng, B.-H.; Song, H.-J. (2025). "A new coelacanth (Actinistia, Sarcopterygii) from the Early Triassic of Anhui, China". Scientific Reports. 15 (1) 36320. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-20229-w. PMC 12534446. PMID 41107359.
  4. ↑ Yabumoto, Yoshitaka; Brito, Paulo M. (2016). "A New Triassic Coelacanth, Whiteia oishii (Sarcopterygii, Actinistia) from West Timor, Indonesia". Paleontological Research. 20 (3): 233–246. Bibcode:2016PalRe..20..233Y. doi:10.2517/2015PR033. S2CID 133276263.
  5. ↑ Yabumoto, Yoshitaka; Brito, Paulo M.; Iwata, Masamitsu; Abe, Yoshitaka (2019). "A new Triassic coelacanth, Whiteia uyenoteruyai (Sarcopterygii, Actinistia) from Madagascar and paleobiogeography of the family Whiteiidae". Bulletin of the Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History Series A (Natural History). 17: 15–28.
  6. ↑ Brownstein, Chase D. (2023). "A large coelacanth, †Whiteia giganteus sp. nov., from the Triassic of Texas, USA, establishes a Pangean radiation of early Mesozoic actinistians" (PDF). Palaeontologia Electronica. 26 (1): a9.
  7. ↑ Forey, Peter L. (1998). History of the coelacanth fishes. London: Chapman & Hall. p. 434. ISBN 9780412784804..