Article: A Late Permian freshwater shark from eastern Australia

A new genus and species of elasmobranch, Surcaudalus rostratus, is described from the Late Permian Rangal Coal Measures, Blackwater, central Queensland. Surcaudalus is characterized by a palatoquadrate with a well-developed ethmoidal articulation, cladodont (phoebodontiform) dentition, absence of ribs, dorsal fin-spines with an anterior keel and a flat to concave posterior wall whose posterolateral margins bear three rows of barb-like denticles, and a non-lunate caudal fin with a well-developed epicaudal lobe. The phylogenetic significance of fin-spine characteristics, caudal fin morphology, and broad, expanded occipital segments is discussed.