Untitled-2 1 05/07/10 16:35 - Universidad Autónoma del Estado de ...

NEW JURASSIC TELEOSTS FROM THE UPPER JURASSIC
OF BAVARIA, SOUTHERN GERMANY
Gloria ARRATIA
Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, The University of Kansas,
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7561, U.S.A.; garratia@ku.edu
Although fossils from the Solnhofen Limestones have been known for over two centuries, the
different quarries in the area of Bavaria are still sources of surprise because discoveries of new
taxa are reported from time to time. New findings from the last ten years include a variety of fossil
plants, invertebrates and vertebrates; with fishes being the most represented in number of taxa
and specimens. While some of the recently reported new taxa were recovered in some of the
oldest known localities such as Solenhofen and Eichstaett, many of the new findings are from
more recently explored quarries such as Schamhaupten (Kimmeridgian) and Ettling (?Kimmeridgian).
The first fossil reported from Ettling was a small euteleost —Orthogonikleithrus hoelli— a
species known only from this locality. This species was the only taxon known from Ettling for a
long period of time. However, during the last few years, an interesting diversity that includes
many different fish taxa has been uncovered at this locality. The new material includes beautifully
preserved semionotiforms, amiiforms, pycnodontiforms, aspidorhynchiforms, ichthyodectiforms,
crossognathiforms, and others.
The goal of this contribution is to communicate a new genus and species of basal teleosts
that shows an overall similarity with the Upper Jurassic genus Ascalabos. Consequently, the
neotype and additional specimens of Ascalabos are re-studied and compared with the new material
from Ettling. Careful morphological studies of both the cranial and postcranial regions demonstrate
outstanding differences between Ascalabos and the new genus and species. In
addition, another new species of the euteleost genus Orthogonikleithrus is also described and
compared to many new specimens of O. hoelli and O. leichi (from Zandt; Tithonian). This new
material enormously increases the knowledge of certain structures such as the skull roof bones,
infraorbital series, vertebral column, accessory neural arch, as well as other osteological features
and gives a better understanding into the morphological characters of basal “true” teleosts,
especially basal euteleosts.
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