Lotella rhacina (Bloch and Schneider, 1801)

Schwarzhans, Werner, Scofield, R. Paul, Tennyson, Alan J. D., Worthy, Jennifer P. & Worthy, Trevor H., 2012, Fish remains, mostly otoliths, from the non-marine early Miocene of Otago, New Zealand, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 57 (2), pp. 319-350 : 347

Lotella rhacina (Bloch and Schneider, 1801)

Fig. 15C .

Material.— One specimen, NMNZ S.52748, Home Hills Station, Manuherikia River near St Bathans, Otago, HH1a bed, Bannockburn Formation , early Miocene .

Remarks.—This is the first record of the genus and species in the fossil record. Bed HH1a was mined from beneath a 2 m thick cover bed of Holocene fluvial gravels, so there is no possibility of contamination from a Recent occurrence. A Recent otolith of L. rhacina is figured for comparison ( Fig. 15B ) to illustrate the somewhat unexpected occurrence of the Recent species obtained from sediments of early Miocene age. In an analysis of species time spans based on otoliths, Schwarzhans (2010) showed that only about 10% of species of marine fishes recorded from the early Miocene (19–16 Ma) of the North Sea Basin can be attributed to extant species. For further comparison, a Recent otolith of the related temperate Australian morid Eeyorius hutchinsi Paulin, 1986 is figured ( Fig. 15A ).

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—Bannockburn Formation, Manuherikia River ; otherwise only known from the Recent, marine, New Zealand.

Perciformes Bleeker, 1859

Lactariidae Jordan, 1923

Genus Lactarius Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1833

Type species: Lactarius delicatulus Valenciennes, 1833 (= Scomber lactarius Bloch and Schneider, 1801 ). Type by monotypy (also by absolute tautonymy of cited synonym); Lactarius delicatulus is un unneeded replacement for Scomber lactarius . Tranquebar, India.

Figures

Fig. 15. Otoliths of marine fishes from the early Miocene Bannockburn Formation and from selected recent fishes for comparison. A. Eeyorius hutchinsi Paulin, 1986, Recent, off Tasmania, 41°00’S–147°23’E, WAM 27564−003, paratype, inner face (A), dorsal view (A). B, C. Lotella rhacina (Bloch and 1 2 Schneider, 1801). B. Recent, of Western Australia, collection W. Schwarzhans, donated by WAM, inner face (B1), dorsal view (B2). C. NMNZ S.52748, Manuherikia River, HH1a, inner face (C1), dorsal view (C2), posterior view (C3), outer face (C4). D. Lactarius sigmoidalis (Frost, 1933), NMNZ S.52749, Manuherikia River, HH1a, inner face (D1), ventral view (D2). E. Bleekeria viridianguilla (Fowler, 1931), Recent, Jakarta, SMF 15768, inner face (E1), ventral view (E2). F, G. Genus aff. Bleekeria sagittiformis (Schwarzhans, 1980), Manuherikia River. F. NMNZ S.52750, HH1b, anterior view (F1), inner face (F2), ventral view (F3). G. NMNZ S.52751, HH1a, inner face.