Ascalaboidae, Arratia, 2016

Arratia, G., 2016, New remarkable Late Jurassic teleosts from southern Germany: Ascalaboidae n. fam., its content, morphology, and phylogenetic relationships, Fossil Record 19 (1), pp. 31-59 : 33

Ascalaboidae n. fam.

Diagnosis (based on a unique combination of characters; uniquely derived features among basal teleosts are identified with an asterisk [*]): Small teleosts of about 115 mm maximum length. Maxilla with external row of small conical teeth increasing in size posteriorly [*]. Supramaxilla 2 with a large, broad body and a narrow, long dorsoanterior process covering most of dorsal border of the long supramaxilla 1. Large, narrow opercle, almost 4 times deeper than subopercle. No gular plate. Low number of vertebrae, 34 to 39 [*]. Deep and narrow supracleithrum, deeper than opercle [*]. Vertebral centrum formation of caudal region including paired chordacentra (pseudo-diplospondyly) that fuse forming one chordacentrum that is later surrounded by an autocentrum [*]. Broad first dorsal pterygiophore with a peculiar fan-like shape with three or more anteroventral processes [*]. Preural ural centrum 1 and ural centrum 1 with short neural spines. High number of hypurals, nine or more. Six to eight uroneurals. Cycloid scales with circuli in anterior field and no radii.

Derivation of name: The family name derives from the genus name Ascalabos .

Content: Ascalabos voithii Graf zu Münster, 1839b and Ebertichthys ettlingensis , n. gen. et n. sp. (A few specimens preliminarily identify as Ascalabos -like have been recovered in Wattendorf and are in the process of being described. Another possible candidate is Anaethalion cirinensis Gaudant, 1968 from Cerin, France, which currently is under revision.) Geographical distribution and age: Southern Germany, Bavaria ( Fig. 1 ). Upper Jurassic, Kimmeridgian (Wattendorf), Kimmeridgian–Lower Tithonian? (Ettling), and Tithonian (e.g., Eichstätt).

Figures

Figure 1. Distribution of Plattenkalk basins and reef areas in the southern Franconian Alb during the Early Tithonian (slightly modified from Viohl, 1996). The new fish described herein was recovered in Ettling.