Leiognathidae, Gill, 1893

Schwarzhans, Werner, Klots, Oleksandr, Ryabokon, Tamara & Kovalchuk, Oleksandr, 2022, A rare window into a back-reef fish community from the middle Miocene (late Badenian) Medobory Hills barrier reef in western Ukraine, reconstructed mostly by means of otoliths, Swiss Journal of Palaeontology (18) 141 (1), pp. 1-35 : 21

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.1186/s13358-022-00261-3
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/039D7D5B-FE5D-FFB7-F872-FC30FDCEF890
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Leiognathidae
status

Treatment

Leiognathidae View in CoL View at ENA indet.

Figure 9f View Fig

Material 1 otolith, Shydlivshchyna, NMB P1214.

Description A small roundish otolith of 2 mm in length. OL:OH = 1.2; OH:OT = 4.0. Ventral and dorsal rim regularly curved, semicircular, but dorsal rim shorter than ventral rim, both without angles but irregularly crenulated. Rostrum broad, blunt, 22% of OL; excisura and antirostrum distinct, antirostrum much shorter than rostrum. Posterior rim regularly curved.

Inner face distinctly convex in horizontal direction, with moderately deep and long supramedian sulcus. Ostium slightly wider and shorter than cauda; CaL:OsL = 1.05; OsH:CaH = 1.2. Cauda very slightly flexed and posterodorsally widened, reaching close to posterior rim of otolith. OL:SuL = 1.12. No discernable ventral furrow; small but distinct dorsal depression. Outer face mildly concave, smooth except for few short radial furrows.

Discussion Tis characteristic otolith may represent an undescribed species of an undefined leiognathid genus (see Lin & Chang, 2012 for figures of extant otoliths). As for this group, a set of skeletal imprints of leiognathids has been described from the early Miocene (Burdigalian) of Poland ( Kovalchuk et al., 2021). Tese specimens are morphologically identical and similar in meristic values to Leiognathoides minutus described from the Great Caucasian Basin ( Bannikov, 2001, 2010; Daniltshenko, 1980; Micklich et al., 2017; Prokofiev, 2002).