New generic name for a small Triassic ray-finned fish from Perledo (Italy)

Abstract

Our new study of the species originally included in the genus Allolepidotus led to the taxonomic revision of the halecomorph species from the Triassic of Perledo, Italy. The morphological variation revealed by the analysis of the type material is sufficient to confirm four different taxa represented in the Perledo Formation. We correct the misunderstanding about the type species of Allolepidotus, which is A. ruppelii and not “A.” bellottii as considered in the literature over the past two decades. The latter species was originally placed in the genus Semionotus. Fossils from the Kalkschieferzone of Besnasca/Ca' del Frate (Viggiù-Varese, Italy) and Meride (Ticino, Switzerland) which were referred to Allolepidotus, rather represent a species of Eoeugnathus. Therefore, we transfer the species Semionotus bellottii to that genus and propose the new combination E. bellottii. The second and only other species originally included in the genus Allolepidotus is transferred here to the new genus Perledovatus. The holotype of P. nothosomoides new comb. has been mechanically prepared, revealing additional anatomical information that allows to place this taxon in the halecomorph family Subortichthyidae. The other halecomorph species named from the Perledo Formation, Pholidophorus oblongus and Pholidophorus curionii, have been treated as junior synonyms of E. bellottii, but our analysis indicates that they represent distinct separate taxa. However, due to the loss of the type specimens, it is not possible to decide whether they might have been conspecific with other ray-finned fishes from the Middle Triassic of the Alps.