Foreyia

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Lower Ladinian, {{fossilrange|240.91}}

| image = Skeleton of Foreyia maxkuhni.jpg

| image_upright = 1.2

| image_caption = Fossil and digram of the skeleton of Foreyia maxkuhni

| image2 =

| image2_caption =

| taxon = Foreyia

| authority = Cavin et al., 2017

| type_species = Foreyia maxkuhni

| type_species_authority = Cavin et al., 2017

}}

Foreyia is an extinct genus of coelacanth lobe-finned fish which lived during the Middle Triassic period in what is now Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It contains a single species F. maxkuhni.{{cite journal | last1 = Cavin | first1 = L. | last2 = Mennecart | first2 = B. | last3 = Obrist | first3 = C. | last4 = Costeur | first4 = L. | last5 = Furrer | first5 = H. | title = Heterochronic evolution explains novel body shape in a Triassic coelacanth from Switzerland | journal = Scientific Reports | volume = 7 | issue = 1 | date = 2017 | page = 13695 | doi = 10.1038/s41598-017-13796-0 | pmid = 29057913 | pmc = 5651877 | bibcode = 2017NatSR...713695C }}

Naming

The generic name honors the late Peter L. Forey for his contributions to the study of coelacanth fishes. The specific epithet honors Max Kuhn, who had been instrumental in preparing fossils from Monte San Giorgio for 12 years, including the holotype and paratype specimens of F. maxkuhni.

Description and classification

File:Reconstruction of the living coelacanth Foreyia maxkuhni - Alain Bénéteau.jpg

F. maxkuhni is an aberrant-looking member of the family Latimeriidae, with a proportionally enormous head, a curved, beak-like maxilla, an underbite, and a low, horn-like point on its otherwise dome-like head. Despite such a bizarre appearance, phylogenetic analyses squarely place F. maxkuhni as the sister taxon of Ticinepomis, another latimeriid also found in the same strata. The two latimeriids share numerous anatomical traits with each other, strongly suggesting a close relation. Foreyia, Ticinepomis and Rieppelia are grouped in the subfamily Ticinepomiinae.{{cite journal |last1=Ferrante |first1=C. |last2=Cavin |first2=L. |title=Early Mesozoic burst of morphological disparity in the slow-evolving coelacanth fish lineage |journal=Scientific Reports |date=2023 |volume=13 |issue=1 |page=11356 |doi=10.1038/s41598-023-37849-9|pmid=37443368 |pmc=10345187 |bibcode=2023NatSR..1311356F }}

Foreyia in cladogram after Toriño et al., 2021.{{Cite journal |last1=Toriño |first1=Pablo |last2=Soto |first2=Matías |last3=Perea |first3=Daniel |date=2021-12-02 |title=A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of coelacanth fishes (Sarcopterygii, Actinistia) with comments on the composition of the Mawsoniidae and Latimeriidae: evaluating old and new methodological challenges and constraints |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2020.1867982 |journal=Historical Biology |volume=33 |issue=12 |pages=3423–3443 |doi=10.1080/08912963.2020.1867982 |bibcode=2021HBio...33.3423T |s2cid=233942585 |issn=0891-2963}}

{{clade

|label1=Latimeriidae

|1={{clade

|1=†Garnbergia

|2={{clade

|1=†Diplurus

|2={{clade

|1={{clade

|1=†Megalocoelacanthus

|2=†Libys

}}

|2={{clade