Distribution
Macropoma lewesiensis lived in the clear water chalk seas of sourthern England 85 million years ago and grew to about 60cm in length.
Geographical and stratigraphic distribution of fossil coelacanths and the living genus Latimeria
Extinct coelacanths
Fossil coelacanths are well known from a variety of Northern hemisphere localities including (Forey, 1998):
- Middle Devonian, Latvia
- Upper Devonian, Quebec, Canada
- Upper Devonian, Germany
- Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Cretaceous, USA
- Upper Carboniferous, Permian, Jurassic and Upper Cretaceous, United Kingdom
- Upper Permian, Lower Triassic, China
- Lower Triassic, Spitsbergen, Norway
- Lower Triassic, Greenland
- Middle Triassic, Switzerland
- Upper Triassic, Austria
- Upper Jurassic Solnhofen limestones, Germany
- Middle Triassic, Spain
(Forey, 1998)
Macropoma lewesiensis is from the Upper Cretaceous Chalk, England
Southern hemisphere (Gondwanan) fossil coelacanth taxa (Forey, 1998)
- Devonian, Australia
- Devonian, South Africa
- Lower Triassic, Madagascar
- Lower Jurassic, India
- Lower Cretaceous Santana Formation, Brazil
- Cretaceous, Egypt, Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Niger
Extant coelacanths
Living coelacanths (Latimeria) have been discovered off the coasts of
- East Africa
- South Africa
- Madagascar
- Mozambique
- Comoros Islands
- Indonesia (Sulawesi).