Coccocephalus

Coccocephalus; Temporal range: Bashkirian to Asselian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Family:	†Coccocephalichthyidae; Fowler, 1951
Genus:	†Coccocephalus; Watson, 1925
Type species
	†Coccocephalus wildi; Watson, 1925
Other species
	†C. baldwini (Poplin, 1974); †C. tessellatus Beltan, 1981; ;
Synonyms
	Coccocephalichthys Whitley, 1940; (non "Coccocephalus" Fieber, 1860); Cocconiscus White & Moy-Thomas, 1940;

Coccocephalus is an extinct genus of prehistoric freshwater and marine basal ray-finned fish from the Carboniferous to the early Permian period.^[1] The type species, C. wildi, lived during the Bashkirian age of the Pennsylvanian epoch in what is now Lancashire, United Kingdom. One specimen of C. wildi is notable for having the earliest known instance of fossilized brain tissue in a vertebrate.^[2]

^ "PBDB Taxon". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2024-05-21.
^ Figueroa, Rodrigo T.; Goodvin, Danielle; Kolmann, Matthew A.; Coates, Michael I.; Caron, Abigail M.; Friedman, Matt; Giles, Sam (2023). "Exceptional fossil preservation and evolution of the ray-finned fish brain". Nature. 614 (7948): 486–491. Bibcode:2023Natur.614..486F. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05666-1. PMID 36725931. S2CID 249475791.