A saw-toothed eel † Serrivomer glehni sp. nov. from the Miocene of Sakhalin Island, north-western PacificCitation for this article: Nazarkin, M. V. (2023) A saw-toothed eel † Serrivomer glehni sp. nov. from the Miocene of Sakhalin Island, north-western Pacific. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2023.2261505

Abstract

ABSTRACT†Serrivomer glehni, a new species of the Neogene saw-toothed eel (Anguilliformes, Serrivomeridae) is described based on the 55 specimens from the Middle–Upper Miocene Kurasi Formation of Sakhalin Island, Russia. This is the third record of fossil saw-toothed eels since the recovery of partial skeletons from the Miocene of Japan and Italy. The new species demonstrates close similarity to the extant Serrivomer species in overall body form and shape of separate bones and their complexes. The new species is characterized by the “longidentatus” type of vomerine dentition and by a single branchiostegal ray protruding beyond the hyoid bar, which suggests a close affinity to the modern S. sector. It can be reliably distinguished from all other species of Serrivomer by its lower number of vertebrae (134 vs. 140–172) and its larger cleithrum, which is positioned under the seventh instead of the eighth vertebral centrum.http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:50673E06-602C-4CA1-8CFF-AD992BCAEBED ACKNOWLEDGMENTSI am grateful to A. I. Pinchuk (University of Alaska) for his great help with the English. Special thanks go to A. M. Prokofiev (A.N. Severtsov's Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) for donation of comparative materials. I thank the editors, along with anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and corrections to the manuscript. The reported study was funded by the Russian Government Research Theme No. 122031100285-3.AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSThe author confirms sole responsibility for the study concept, data collection, analysis and interpretation of results, and preparation of the manuscript.DISCLOSURE STATEMENTNo potential conflict of interest was declared by the author.