. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geology. FOSSIL DENTICIPITID FISHES FROM EAST AFRICA n occurs in the streams and rivers of present-day Tanganyika) has a wide ecological tolerance, as have most of the living generalized and fluviatile species. It would not be unreasonable to assume the same characteristics for the earlier species, which cannot therefore provide any critical information on the ecological conditions at the time preceding their death. The earliest record of fossil Cichlidae in Africa is from Miocene deposits on Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria (Greenwood, 1951).
. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geology. FOSSIL DENTICIPITID FISHES FROM EAST AFRICA n occurs in the streams and rivers of present-day Tanganyika) has a wide ecological tolerance, as have most of the living generalized and fluviatile species. It would not be unreasonable to assume the same characteristics for the earlier species, which cannot therefore provide any critical information on the ecological conditions at the time preceding their death. The earliest record of fossil Cichlidae in Africa is from Miocene deposits on Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria (Greenwood, 1951). Fishes from these beds share some characters with those from Singida, notably the small size, similar fin ray counts and a low number of vertebrae. Since the teeth and scales of the Rusinga fishes were not well preserved no generic identification could be made with certainty. Although I suggested that these fishes might be Tilapia (Greenwood, 1951), further material examined by Dr. Ethelwynn Trewavas indicates that some could be referred to Haplochromis or even to Pelmatochromis on the characters preserved (Trewavas, 1957, unpublished report). The identity of the Singida cichlids is certainly more definite. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is with great pleasure that I thank Dr. G. W. Mannard and Dr. H. S. Clausen who have discussed with me their unpublished researches on, respectively, the deposits and the living fishes ; my thanks are also due to Dr. E. I. White, Keeper of Palaeon- tology, who read and criticized the manuscript of this paper. REFERENCES Clausen, H. S. 1959. Denticipitidae, a new family of primitive isospondylous teleosts from west African freshwater. Vidensk. Medd. naturh. Foren. Kbh., 121 : 141-151, pis. 1, 2. Greenwood, P. H. 1951. Fish remains from Miocene deposits of Rusinga Island and Kavirondo Province, Kenya. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., London (12) 4 : 1192-1201, pi. 21. 1959. Quaternary fish-fossils. In Exploration du Pare National Albert, Mission J. de Heinzelin de Bra
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