First occurrence of the lungfish Sagenodus (Dipnoi, Sarcopterygii) from the Carboniferous Lagerstätte of Montceau-les-Mines, France

New material of the dipnoan genus Sagenodus is described from the Carboniferous of the Barrat quarry (Blanzy-Creuzot coal basin, Montceau-les-Mines, France). This is the first occurrence of this lungfish in France, which enlarges its distribution within Europe (Fritsch, 1888; Schultze, 1993; Watson and Gill, 1923).
This material is Stephanian B in age, the previously established geological range of this Euramerican (Schultze and Chorn, 1997) genus. Remains consist of skull, lower jaw and shoulder girdle elements, closely set together with many ribs.
This material, considered as belonging to a single disarticulated specimen, presents affinities with the material of Sagenodus sp. from Germany (Schultze, 1993) and appears significantly different to all other known Sagenodus species. However this new material can only be attributed to Sagenodus sp. because of its incompleteness.
Montceau-les-Mines is interpreted as a freshwater environment deposit and the presence of Sagenodus in this locality confirms that most of the localities of Sagenodus are freshwater deposits. The strong affinities, existing between the material from France and Germany, indicate that there were solid hydrographic links between both basins during the Stephanian B–Upper Rotliegend period.