LAPILLUS TYPE 1 (SENSU STRINGER ET AL., 2020)

FIG. 8I

Material—one small,slightly eroded specimen, DMNH 2021-09-31.

Description and Remarks—The single utricular otolith identified as Lapillus type 1 from the Arkadelphia Formation is small (around 3 mm) and rounded on several sides, which gives it a lobe-like appearance. The Arkadelphia specimen appears to be identical to specimens identified as utricular otoliths (family and genus indeterminate) from the Ripley Formation (Cretaceous, Maastrichtian) in northeast Mississippi by Stringer (1991), Nolf and Stringer (1996), and Stringer et al. (2020, as Lapillus type 1). It was also noted from the Severn Formation by Stringer and Schwarzhans (2021). Typically, Lapillus type 1 is not numerous, but Stringer et al. (2016) reported 36 of these utricular otoliths from the Woodbury Formation (Cretaceous, early-middle Campanian). Some of the utricular otoliths from Stringer et al. (2016) are preserved especially well (their pl. 2, fig. 11) and show many features not discernible in the Arkadelphia Formation specimen. If the specimens represent the same taxon, then the teleost has a fairly long stratigraphic range from the early-middle Campanian to the late Maastrichtian.