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| Genus: | Serenichthys Gess et al., 2015
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| Serenichthys kowiensis Gess et al., 2015
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B, Diplocercides heiligostockiensis, Jessen (1966), Upper Devonian (Frasnian), Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany;
C, Serenicthys kowiensis gen. et sp. nov., Upper Devonian (Famennian), Grahamstown, South Africa;
D, Allenypterus montanus Melton 1969, Lower Carboniferous (Namurian), Montana, USA;
E, Rhabdodema elegans, (Newberry, 1856), Upper Carboniferous (Westphalian), Linton, Ohio, USA;
F, Latimeria chalumnae Smith 1939, extant, east coast of Africa.
Serenichthys kowiensis is a fossil species of coelacanth described in 2015 from near Grahamstown in South Africa.
Some 30 complete specimens of this new species were found in the black shale lagerstätte on Waterloo Farm, preserved by the mud of an ancient estuary dating back to the Famennian stage of the Late Devonian some 360 million years ago. In an article published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society and jointly authored by paleontologists Michael Coates of the University of Chicago and Robert Gess from the University of the Witwatersrand, the find is described as the earliest coelacanth to be discovered from Africa. Gess first identified coelacanth remains from this locality in the 1990s, but these were poorly preserved and unsuitable for formal description. Subsequent work produced many more specimens, some preserved in fine detail. All specimens of Serenichthys kowiensis have been added to the palaeontological collection of the Albany Museum in Grahamstown.[2]
- ^ Gess, Robert (2011). High Latitude Gondwanan Famennian Biodiversity Patterns: Evidence from the South African Witpoort Formation (Cape Supergroup, Witteberg Group) (Tesis thesis). University of the Witwatersrand.
- ^ "Serenichthys kowiensis: Fossils Reveal New Genus and Species of Coelacanth". sci-news.com. 21 September 2015.