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1 July 2018 Fossil Evidence of the Hammerjaw Fish, Omosudis sp. (Teleostei, Aulopiformes) from the Middle Miocene Yokoo Formation in Nagano Prefecture, Central Japan
Hideshi Suzuki
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Abstract

A fossil palatine of an alepisauroid fish collected from the middle Miocene Yokoo Formation in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan is described as Omosudis sp. Although the palatine is only a fragment, the palatine teeth arranged in a single row are well preserved. In fact, the palatine tooth characteristics are adequate for generic-level diagnosis. The fossil appears to be assignable to the genus Omosudis belonging to the family Alepisauridae by having the following characteristics: enormously large, posteriorly inclined teeth each with a sharply pointed apex, apico-basal striations, a nearly straight to arcuate anterior cutting edge, a wide pulp cavity surrounded by a thin dentine layer and a fang-like outline due to a basally elongated postapical barb. The Yokoo specimen represents the first reliable fossil record of the genus from the middle Miocene in Japan and appears to mark the earliest occurrence of this Recent genus in the Northwest Pacific region.

© by the Palaeontological Society of Japan
Hideshi Suzuki "Fossil Evidence of the Hammerjaw Fish, Omosudis sp. (Teleostei, Aulopiformes) from the Middle Miocene Yokoo Formation in Nagano Prefecture, Central Japan," Paleontological Research 22(3), 210-217, (1 July 2018). https://doi.org/10.2517/2017PR019
Received: 26 November 2016; Accepted: 23 October 2017; Published: 1 July 2018
KEYWORDS
alepisauroid fish
fossil palatine
middle Miocene
Omosudis
palatine tooth morphology
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