Sassenia

{{Short description|Extinct genus of coelacanths}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|251.902|250|Induan-early Olenekian}}

| taxon = Sassenia

| authority = Stensiö, 1921

| type_species = {{extinct}}Sassenia tuberculata

| type_species_authority = Stensiö, 1921

| subdivision_ranks = Other species

| subdivision = *{{extinct}}S.? guttata (Woodward, 1912)

• {{extinct}}S. groenlandica Forey, 1998

}}

Sassenia is an extinct genus of prehistoric coelacanth lobe-finned fish that lived during the Early Triassic epoch in what is now East Greenland and Svalbard.{{cite web|url=http://users.atw.hu/fishindex/sarcopterygii/coelacanthiformes/coelacanthiformes.htm |title=Coelacanthiformes |access-date=20 Nov 2012|publisher=ATW.hu}}{{cite journal |last1=Romano |first1=Carlo |last2=Koot |first2=Martha B. |last3=Kogan |first3=Ilja |last4=Brayard |first4=Arnaud |last5=Minikh |first5=Alla V. |last6=Brinkmann |first6=Winand |last7=Bucher |first7=Hugo |last8=Kriwet |first8=Jürgen |title=Permian-Triassic Osteichthyes (bony fishes): diversity dynamics and body size evolution |journal=Biological Reviews |date=2016 |volume=91 |issue=1 |pages=106–147 |doi=10.1111/brv.12161 |pmid=25431138 |s2cid=5332637 |url=https://hal.science/hal-01253154/document }}

The type species, Sassenia tuberculata, was first described from Sassendalen (Sassen Valley), Sabine Land, on the island of Spitsbergen, Svalbard, from where the genus name is also derived. Fossils of S. tuberculata and a possible second species, S.? guttata (described originally as Coelacanthus guttatus by Arthur Smith Woodward), were both collected from the Vikinghøgda Formation and are Smithian (early Olenekian) in age. Another species, S. groenlandica, was later discovered in Griesbachian (early Induan) aged layers of the Wordie Creek Formation in Greenland.{{Cite book |last=Stensiö |first=Erik |author-link=Erik Stensiö |title=Triassic fishes from Spitzbergen |year=1921 |publisher=Adolf Holzhausen |location=Vienna |pages=xxviii + 307 |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.159141|s2cid=83338211 |doi-access=free }}{{cite book |last=Forey |first=Peter L. |year=1998 |title=History of the coelacanth fishes |publisher=Chapman & Hall |location=London |pages=434 |ISBN=9780412784804}}.