Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 5468 No. 1: 11 Jun. 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-06-11
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5468.1.5
Page range: 145-153
Abstract views: 66
PDF downloaded: 30

A new species of the fossil pufferfish genus †Archaeotetraodon (Tetraodontidae) from the Middle Miocene of the North Caucasus, Russia

Borissiak Paleontological Institute; Russian Academy of Sciences; Profsoyuznaya ul. 123; Moscow; 117647; Russia
National Museum of Natural History; Department of Paleobiology; Smithsonian Institution; Washington; D.C. 20560-0160; U.S.A.
Pisces Archaeotetraodon bemisae Maikopian basal-most Middle Miocene Krasnodar Region Pshekha River Tetraodontiformes

Abstract

The fossil puffer fish genus †Archaeotetraodon Tyler & Bannikov, 1994 is unique among the Tetraodontidae in having the upright central spinule of the dermal scale plates bifid rather than singular and undivided. Six species of this genus have previously been described variously from the Oligocene and Miocene of Russia, Italy, Algeria, and Ukraine. Described herein is a seventh species of this genus, †Archaeotetraodon bemisae sp. nov., based upon two specimens from the Pshekha River, Krasnodar Region, North Caucasus, Russia. These Maikopian specimens are no less than 15 mya, in the basal-most Middle Miocene. The new species is distinguished from the other six species in the genus by the following combination of characters: thick, sturdy, and smooth bifid spinules; frontal width broad over the orbit; 18 vertebrae; slender ventral postcleithrum; a moderately long rayless pterygiophore; height/length ratio of the posteriormost abdominal centrum being 0.78–0.79; 10 dorsal-fin rays; 9 anal-fin rays; and 14 pectoral-fin rays.

 

References

  1. Arcila, D. & Tyler, J.C. (2017) Mass extinction in Tetraodontiform fishes linked to the Paleocene—Eocene thermal maximum. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 284, 1–8, supplementary material. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1771
  2. Bannikov, A.F. (1990) The first Miocene puffers (Tetraodontidae) in the USSR. Paleontological Journal, 24 (4), 71–76.
  3. Bannikov, A.F. (2010) Fossil vertebrates of Russia and adjacent countries: Fossil acanthopterygian fishes (Teleostei, Acanthopterygii). GEOS, Moscow, LXI + 244 pp., 30 pls. (in Russian)
  4. Bannikov, A.F. (2020) A new locality of the Tarkhanian (early–middle Miocene) bony fishes in the north-western Caucasus [Novoye mestonakhozhdeniye tarkhanskikh (nizhniy–sredniy miotsen) kostistykh ryb na Severo-Zapadnom Kavkaze]. In: Biogeography and Evolutionary Processes; Materials of LXVI session of the Paleontological Society at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Kartfabrika VSEGEI, St. Petersburg, pp. 214–216. [in Russian]
  5. Bannikov, A.F. & Tyler, J.C. (2008) A new species of the pufferfish Eotetraodon (Tetraodontiformes, Tetraodontidae) from the Eocene of the northern Caucasus. Paleontological Journal, 42 (5), 526–530. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030108050080
  6. Beluzhenko, E.V. (2002) Stratigrafiya sredne-verkhnemiotsenovykh i pliotsenovykh otlozheniy mezhdurech’ya Psekups-Belaya (Severo-Zapadnyj Kavkaz); Statya 1: Sredniy miotsen. Bulletin of Moscow Society of Naturalists, Geological Series, 77 (1), 47–59. [in Russian]
  7. Bonaparte, C.L. (1832) Saggio d’una distribuzione metodica degli animali vertebrati a sangue freddo. Antonio Boulzaler, Rome, 86 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.48624
  8. Carnevale, G. (2007) Fossil fishes from the Serravallian (Middle Miocene) of Torricella Peligna, Italy. Palaeontographia Italica, 91, 1–67.
  9. Carnevale, G. & Santini, F. (2006) †Archaeotetraodon cerrinaferoni, sp. nov. (Teleostei, Tetraodontidae), from the Miocene (Messinian) of Chelif Basin, Algeria. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 26, 815–821. https://doi.org/10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[815:ACSNTT]2.0.CO;2
  10. Carnevale, G. & Tyler, J.C. (2010) Review of the fossil pufferfish genus Archaeotetraodon (Teleostei, Tetraodontidae), with description of three new taxa from the Miocene of Italy. Geobios, 43, 283–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geobios.2009.10.005
  11. Carnevale, G. & Tyler, J.C. (2015) A new pufferfish (Teleostei, Tetraodontidae) from the Middle Miocene of St. Margarethen, Austria. Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 89, 435–447. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-014-0243-3
  12. Gordon, M.S., Plaut, I. & Kim, D. (1996) How puffers (Teleostei, Tetraodontidae) swim. Journal of Fish Biology, 49, 319–328. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.1996.tb00026.x
  13. Patterson, C. & Rosen, D.E. (1977) A review of ichthyodectiform and other Mesozoic teleost fishes, and the theory and practice of classifying fossils. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 158, 81–172.
  14. Popov, S.V., Golovina, L.A., Palcu, D.V., Goncharova, I.A., Pinchuk, T.N., Rostovtseva, Yu. V., Akhmetiev, M.A., Aleksandrova, G.N., Zaporozhets, N.I., Bannikov, A.F., Bylinskaya, M.E. & Lazarev, S. Yu. (2022) Neogene regional scale of the Eastern Paratethys, stratigraphy and paleontological basis. Paleontological Journal, 56 (12), 1557–1720. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030122120024
  15. Popov, S.V., Golovina, L.A., Palcu, D.V., Goncharova, I.A., Pinchuk, T.N., Rostovtseva, Yu. V., Akhmetiev, M.A., Aleksandrova, G.N., Zaporozhets, N.I., Bannikov, A.F., Bylinskaya, M.E., Zastrozhnov, A.S. & Lazarev, S. Yu. (2023) Neogene of the Eastern Paratethys: A regional stage, reference sections, and problems of correlation [Neogen Vostochnogo Paratetisa: regioyarusnaya shkala, opornye razrezy i problemy correlyatsii]. Proceedings of the Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 299, 1–504. [in Russian]
  16. Přikryl, T., Kovalchuk, O., Carnevale, G. & Barkaszi, Z. (2022) New material of the puffer fish Archaeotetraodon winterbottomi Tyler et Bannikov, 1994 (Tetraodontidae) from the Oligocene of the Eastern Paratethys. Fossil Imprint, 78 (2), 513–518. https://doi.org/10.37520/fi.2022.022
  17. Santini, F. & Tyler, J.C. (2003) A phylogeny of the families of fossil and extant tetraodontiform fishes (Acanthomorpha, Tetraodontiformes), Upper Cretaceous to Recent. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 139, 565–617. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2003.00088.x
  18. Tyler, J.C. (1980) Osteology, phylogeny, and higher classification of the fishes of the order Plectognathi (Tetraodontiformes). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Technical Report, National Marine Fisheries Service, Circular, 434, 1–422. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.63022
  19. Tyler, J.C. & Bannikov, A.F. (1994) A new genus of fossil pufferfish (Tetraodontidae: Tetraodontiformes) based on a new species from the Oligocene of Russia and a referred species from the Miocene of Ukraine. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 107 (1), 97–108.
  20. Tyler, J.C. & Bannikov, A.F. (2012 [2013]) A new species of puffer fish, Eotetraodon tavernei, from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, in Italy (Tetraodontidae, Tetraodontiformes). Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona, Studi e Ricerche sui Giacimenti Terziari di Bolca, 14, 51–58.
  21. Tyler, J.C., Purdy, R.W. & Oliver, K.H. (1992) A new species of Sphoeroides pufferfish (Teleostei, Tetraodontidae) with extensive hyperostosis from the Pliocene of North Carolina. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 105, 462–482.
  22. Wainwright, P.C. & Turingan, R.C. (1997) Evolution of pufferfish inflation behavior. Evolution, 51, 506–518. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1997.tb02438.x