Fig. 9. Araripichthys castilhoi, AMNH 11948 in A Review of the Problematic Extinct Teleost Fish Araripichthys, with a Description of a New Species from the Lower Cretaceous of Venezuela

Fig. 9. Araripichthys castilhoi, AMNH 11948, Lower Cretaceous, Santana Formation, Brazil. Stereopair of acid­prepared occipital region (lateral view, right side). The first vertebral centrum is fused to basioccipital, but it is separated by a narrow gap from the exoccipitals, and the neural arch contacts the exoccipital above spinal nerve opening. Parts of three epineural bones of the left side are exposed between the anterior neural arches. Note also the presence of a wide unossified space between the supraoccipital and exoccipitals, as well as the round opening between the pterosphenoid and sphenotic connecting the orbit and dilatator fossa (both these features are also evident in fig. 10).