Echiodon dentatus (Cuvier, 1829)

Echiodon dentatus (Cuvier, 1829) View in CoL

Figure 15b–e View Fig

1978a Carapus acus (Brünnich, 1768) —Schwarzhans Fig. 112.

1994 Echiodon praeimberbis ( Weiler, 1971) —Nolf & Cavallo: pl. 5, Fig. 2 View Fig .

Material 24 specimens, Zanclean, 23 specimens Dar bel Hamri (figured specimens SMF PO 101.212 ) , 1 specimen Sidi Mohamed ech Chleuh ( SMF PO 101.213 ) .

Discussion Tere has been some confusion about the identity of carapid otoliths of the genus Echiodon in the Pliocene of the Mediterranean. A large series of extant otoliths of E. dentatus has been figured in Lombarte et al. (2006), and one of them is refigured here ( Fig. 15e View Fig ). Tese otoliths are characterized by being relatively thin, having a relatively narrow sulcus terminating at some distance from the anterior rim of the otolith, and a flat ventral otolith rim. Some specimens found in Morocco and recorded in the literature from the Mediterranean (see synonymy listing) match the morphology of the extant specimens very well. However, there is also a coeval second species known from the Zanclean of the Mediterranean and Morocco that represents a different morphotype and has been described as Carapus praeimberbis by Weiler (1971) but is sometimes confused with E. dentatus (see below). Echiodon dentatus differs from E. praeimberbis by the narrower and shorter sulcus (although in large specimens of E. dentatus , the sulcus increases in size; see Tuset et al., 2008), the unexpanded (vs. expanded) ventral otolith rim, and the outer face projecting over the dorsal rim of the otolith (vs. unexpanded).