NEW ARTICULATED OSTEOGLOSSOMORPH FROM LATE CRETACEOUS FRESHWATER DEPOSITS (MAASTRICHTIAN, SCOLLARD FORMATION) OF ALBERTA, CANADA

Articulated fishes are rare in Late Cretaceous non-marine deposits of the Western Interior; fishes are more often represented by disarticulated elements in vertebrate microfossil localities. A new Maastrichtian locality of the Scollard Formation in central Alberta, Canada, has been named Pisces Point to reflect the diversity of articulated fishes that are now being recovered from this site. Material collected from the Pisces Point locality includes a percopsiform, a semionotiform, at least one esociform, and at least two osteoglossomorphs. One of these is described here as a new genus and species, Wilsonichthys aridinsulensis. A phylogenetic analysis shows this new taxon to be the sister group of most other Osteoglossiformes. The new articulated material allows us to identify some of the microfossil remains previously collected from other Late Cretaceous sites as belonging to the same or a similar taxon.