A new genus and species of anglerfish (Teleostei: Lophiiformes: Lophiidae) from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, Italy

摘要

Sharfia mirabilis, a new genus and species of lophiid anglerfish from the Ypresian of Monte Bolca, northern Italy, is described from a single specimen residing among collections of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris. Together with ? Lophius brachysomus Agassiz, 1835, known from three or four individuals also from Monte Bolca, ? Sharfia mirabilis is the oldest member of the teleost family Lophiidae known to date based on articulated skeletal remains. It possesses several autapomorphic features as well as a unique combination of character states, especially in the structure of the opercular bones, which clearly separate it from all other known lophiiform fishes. Among extant lophiid genera, the new taxon shows perhaps the strongest phenetic resemblance to Sladenia and Lophiodes. ? Sharfia mirabilis most likely inhabited inner shelf regions of the central Tethys Sea about 50 Ma, living at moderate depths on soft mud or sand bottoms, much like extant members of the family.