Echiodon praeimberbis ( Weiler, 1971 )

Echiodon praeimberbis ( Weiler, 1971)

Figure 15f–i View Fig

1971 Carapus praeimberbis —Weiler: pl. 2, Fig. 35.

1978a Echiodon drumondii Tompson, 1837 —Schwarzhans: Fig. 113.

1989 Echiodon praeimberbis ( Weiler, 1971) —Nolf & Cappetta: pl. 13, Fig. 1 View Fig .

2006 Echiodon praeimberbis ( Weiler, 1971) —Girone, Nolf & Cappetta: Fig. 6.8 View Fig .

2022 Echiodon dentatus (Cuvier, 1829) View in CoL —van Hinsbergh & Hoedemakers: pl. 17, Figs. 17 View Fig , 18 View Fig .

Material 79 specimens, Dar bel Hamri, Zanclean (figured specimens SMF PO 101.214 ) .

Discussion Otoliths of E. praeimberbis differ from those of E. dentatus in being more thickset, showing a distinctly wider and larger sulcus that reaches close to the anterior and dorsal rims of the otolith and a deepened, curved ventral otolith rim. Except for the deepened ventral rim, these otoliths resemble those of the extant E. drummondii from the northern North Sea and Norwegian Sea. Schwarzhans (2013a) recorded otoliths of Echiodon sp. from Holocene dredge samples off West Africa between Guinea and Nigeria, which are refigured here for comparison ( Fig. 15j–k View Fig ). Tese otoliths resemble E. praeimberbis even more closely in the expanded ventral rim and differ only in the pointed anterior tip and the reduced, rounded posterior tip. No Echiodon species is recorded from tropical West Africa today. Tus, the Holocene dredge samples indicate that an undescribed Echiodon species may exist in West Africa ( Schwarzhans, 2013a), and E. praeimberbis would be the fossil species most closely related to it.

Nolf (2013) considered all records of E. praeimberbis to represent the extant E. dentatus , but this concept is probably a result of the presence of two different species occurring coevally and mostly in small numbers. However, van Hinsbergh and Hoedemakers (2022) listed 328 specimens from Estepona near Málaga, Spain, mostly from the Piacenzian. Te two specimens figured pertain to E. praeimberbis , but it is quite possible that the assemblage also contained E. dentatus .