1 A Lungfish survivor of the end-Devonian extinction and an Early Carboniferous dipnoan 2 radiation. 3 4 Tom J. Challands1*, Timothy R. Smithson,2 Jennifer A. Clack2, Carys E. Bennett3, John E. A. 5 Marshall4, Sarah M. Wallace-Johnson5, Henrietta Hill2 6 7 1School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, James Hutton Road, Edinburgh, 8 EH9 3FE, UK. email:
[email protected]; tel: +44 (0) 131 650 4849 9 10 2University Museum of Zoology Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. 11 12 3Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK. 13 14 4School of Ocean & Earth Science, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, 15 European Way, University Road, Southampton, SO14 3ZH , UK. 16 17 5Sedgwick Museum, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing St., 18 Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK 1 19 Abstract 20 21 Until recently the immediate aftermath of the Hangenberg event of the Famennian Stage (Upper 22 Devonian) was considered to have decimated sarcopterygian groups, including lungfish, with only 23 two taxa, Occludus romeri and Sagenodus spp., being unequivocally recorded from rocks of 24 Tournaisian age (Mississippian, Early Carboniferous). Recent discoveries of numerous 25 morphologically diverse lungfish tooth plates from southern Scotland and northern England indicate 26 that at least ten dipnoan taxa existed during the earliest Carboniferous. Of these taxa, only two, 27 Xylognathus and Ballgadus, preserve cranial and post-cranial skeletal elements that are yet to be 28 described. Here we present a description of the skull of a new genus and species of lungfish, 29 Limanichthys fraseri gen.