Stratum.black
Mawsonia — Mawsonia
Mawsonia — Ghedoghedo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 3.0

Fish

Mawsonia

Coelacanth

Mawsonia is the giant Cretaceous coelacanth of the Kem Kem Group and Brazil, reaching 4–5 m. Kem Kem material consists of thick, rugose skull bones (angular, gular plates) with a distinctive ridged ornament, sold as 'coelacanth bone'. Its bones are often confused with turtle shell by beginners.

PhylumChordata
ClassSarcopterygii
OrderCoelacanthiformes
FamilyMawsoniidae
GroupFish
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorMawson and Woodward 1907· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Chordata › Osteichthyes › Coelacanthiformes › Mawsoniidae· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)162–93.9 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences34· Paleobiology Database

Photographs

Mawsonia — Mawsonia gigas Woodward in Mawson and Woodward, 1907, TYPE (NHMUK PV P 10357)
Mawsonia gigas Woodward in Mawson and Woodward, 1907, TYPE (NHMUK PV P 10357) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Mawsonia — Mawsonia gigas Woodward in Mawson and Woodward, 1907, PART OF HOLOTYPE (NHMUK PV P 10355)
Mawsonia gigas Woodward in Mawson and Woodward, 1907, PART OF HOLOTYPE (NHMUK PV P 10355) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0
Mawsonia — Mawsonia minor Woodward, 1908, HOLOTYPE (NHMUK PV P 10569)
Mawsonia minor Woodward, 1908, HOLOTYPE (NHMUK PV P 10569) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Age

Formations

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Mawsonia" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/mawsonia. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-mawsonia,
  title        = {Mawsonia},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/mawsonia}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons, nhm. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.