REDESCRIPTION AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF ARGYROPELECUS LOGEARTI (TELEOSTEI: STOMIIFORMES: STERNOPTYCHIDAE),WITH A BRIEF REVIEW OF FOSSIL ARGYROPELECUS

Argyropelecus logearti Arambourg, 1929 is redescribed in detail based on new material. The material consists of many unreported specimens from type and other localities. Based on new information presented here Argyropelecus logearti is interpreted to be most closely related to the extant species Argyropelecus hemigymnus. Argyropelecus logearti provides an early fossil that can be placed in the phylogenetic context of living Argyropelecus species. Argyropelecus has a fossil record ranging from Oligocene to Pleistocene. Fossil representatives of this genus are listed here for future reference.&nbsp

A reappraisal of the Italian record of the Cretaceous pachycormid fish Protosphyraena Leidy, 1857

The genus Protosphyraena is known mainly from partial remains, consisting of isolated blade-like teeth, conical rostra and scythe-like pectoral fins. This paper provides a new insight into partial specimens of the genus Protosphyraena from the Cretaceous of NE Italy, housed in historical collections from local paleontological museums and previously poorly known to the international scientific community. The specimens are referred to the species Protosphyraena ferox, based on the morphology of the pectoral fin. This attribution is consistent with the paleobiogeographic distribution and stratigraphic range of this taxon. The Italian material provides new information about the distribution in time and space of Protosphyraena, which is relatively poorly known despite being an iconic taxon. The Italian remains, although fragmentary, contribute to fill a gap in the central Tethys record of the genus, whose range probably extended worldwide, considering also the genus Australopachycormus and its profound (possibly congeneric) similarities

Eocene round herring from Monte Bolca, Italy

Fishes of the subfamily Dussumieriinae, also known as round herrings, are a small subgroup of the family Clupeidae inhabiting tropical and subtropical marine coastal waters. A new genus and species of round herring, Trollichthys bol-censis gen. et sp. nov., is described from the lower Eocene micritic limestone of Monte Bolca, northern Italy. This new clupeid taxon is based on seven partially complete articulated skeletons that exhibit a unique combination of features, including: two supramaxillae, edentulous jaw and palate bones, 41–42 preural vertebrae and 22–24 pleural ribs, pleural ribs-preural vertebrae ratio ranging 0.52–0.57, five or six supraneural bones, dorsal-fin origin located at about mid-length of the body, dorsal fin with about 16 rays, two postcleithra, pelvic-fin insertion slightly behind the dorsal-fin origin, and pelvic fin with eight rays. Trollichthys bolcensis shares several features with the extant round herring genus Spratelloi-des. However, because of its unique combination of features, Trollichthys bolcensis cannot be confidently assigned to any of the extant dussumieriine lineages and present evidence does not favour any particular sister-group relationship

MARINE LIFE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN DURING THE MESSINIAN SALINITY CRISIS: A PALEOICHTHYOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Almost fifty years after the first definition of the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC), the events that occurred in the Mediterranean during the terminal portion of the Miocene still attract the attention of a large and diverse scientific community. Although fossils are relatively common in the deposits that accumulated during the MSC, their significance for the interpretation of the latest Miocene paleoenvironmental evolution of the Mediterranean has been underevalued. In this paper, we summarize the marine paleoichthyological record of the three stages of the MSC based on both articulated and isolated skeletal remains and otoliths, the latter almost exclusively known from the Lago-Mare phase. We focus on the composition of the marine ichthyofauna of the Mediterranean during the three main stages of the MSC, showing the persistent continuity of marine stenohaline taxa throughout most of the interval between 5.97 and 5.33 Ma. While the record of articulated fish skeletons is unquestionably autochthonous, thereby providing unambiguous evidence of the occurrence of open marine environments in the MSC preceding the Lago-Mare phase, the autochthonous nature of the otolith record has often been questioned. For this reason, the otolith record of marine fishes has been examined in detail from a taxonomic and paleoecological point of view. Three species, Bellottia verecunda n. sp., Benthosema taurinense n. sp., and Bostrychus marsilii n. sp., are described as new and a thorough discussion about the possible origin of the otoliths is provided. Alternative explanations for the occurrence of otoliths of marine fish during the Lago-Mare phase, such as reworking, contamination from overlying Pliocene sediments or import from outside the Mediterranean through aquatic birds are considered unlikely. In our assessment, the occurrence of marine fish otoliths in the Lago-Mare phase can be explained with the presence of normal marine environments in the Mediterranean, at least temporarily. Therefore, we suggest that the paleoichthyological data provided herein should be integrated in the future evolutionary paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the MSC