Sciaenidae Cuvier, 1829

Lin, Chien-Hsiang & Nolf, Dirk, 2022, Middle and late Eocene fish otoliths from the eastern and southern USA, European Journal of Taxonomy 814, pp. 1-122 : 86

Family Sciaenidae Cuvier, 1829

Remarks

At least nine sciaenid species are represented in our material, Ekokenia eporrecta ( Koken, 1888) , Eosciaena ebersolei Stringer et al., 2022 , Jefitchia copelandi Dante & Frizzell, 1965 , Sciaena pseudoradians (Dante & Frizzell, 1965) , “ Sciaena ” claybornensis ( Koken, 1888) , “ S. ” eanesi ( Müller, 1999), “ S. ” intermedia ( Koken, 1888) , “ S. ” livesayi ( Müller, 1999), and one undescribed species (as Sciaenidae indet.). The relationships of these sciaenids are still obscure and a point of discussion ( Schwarzhans 1993; Nolf 2013; Ebersole et al. 2019), which is mainly due to plesiomorphic conditions concerning the modern analogs. Using landmark analysis, the geometric morphometrics of these otoliths quantitatively showed at least two clear divisions (Lin, unpublished conference data,Supplementary file 1, not including the recently described Eosciaena ebersolei ): one with shorter cauda and wider distance between the ostium and the bent part of the cauda, including E. eporrecta , “ S. ” claybornensis , “ S. ” eanesi, and the undescribed species. The other cluster of otoliths, with a relatively long cauda and wide ostium, includes J. copelandi , S. pseudoradians , “ S. ” intermedia , and “ S. ” livesayi. Although preliminarily and unresolved, these data indicated that more fossil genera and fossil species are involved and yet to be discovered or described.