A new species of the neopterygian fish Enchodus from the Duwi Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous, Western Desert, central Egypt

Abstract

The neopterygian fish Enchodus was a widespread, speciose genus consisting of approximately 30 recognized species that were temporally distributed from the late

Vertebrate fossils from the San José de Gracia quarry, a new Late Cretaceous marine fossil site in Puebla, Mexico

“…Despite its taxonomic richness, in the most recent systematic studies on Enchodus, only 18 species have been considered (Goody, 1976, Chalifa, 1996, Bogan and Agnolin, 2010 and just 14 of them were included into the last phylogenetic approaches (Fielitz, 2004;Fielitz and González-Rodríguez, 2010;Cavin et al, 2012;Díaz-Cruz et al, 2016;Holloway et al, 2017;among others). Considering the results of Díaz-Cruz et al (2016); the presence of a single palatine tooth is a homoplasic condition shared only for Rharbichthys ferox Arambourgh, 1954 and all members of the family Enchodontidae menus Unicachichthys multidentatus Díaz-Cruz, Alvarado-Ortega and Carbot-Chanona, 2016.…”

“…Among enchodontids with a single palatine tooth, the cross section of this tooth is symmetrical, ovoid, and shows a single anterior carina (unicarinated) only in five species, including E. shumardi Leidy, 1856;E. dirus, Leidy, 1857; as well as E. gladiolus, E. zimapanensis, and the unnamed Enchodus species from Gavdos (Parris et al, 2007;Fielitz and González-Rodríguez, 2010;Cavin et al, 2012;Holloway et al, 2017;among others). In contrasts, in other enchodontids in which the palatine tooth is known, the cross section of this tooth is rounded without carinae or laterally compressed and bi-carinated.…”

A long snout enchodontid fish (Aulopiformes: Enchodontidae) from the Early Cretaceous deposits at the El Chango quarry, Chiapas, southeastern Mexico: A multi-approach study

“…Enchodus longidens (Pictet, 1850) Díaz-Cruz et al (2019b). In turn, this incorporated data from Fielitz (2004), Fielitz and González-Rodríguez (2010), Cavin et al (2012), Díaz-Cruz et al (2016), and Holloway et al (2017). Our resulting data matrix includes 96 characters and 32 taxa; the modifications implemented in this matrix, as well as the detailed description of all the characters, are discussed in Appendix I and II.…”

“…Landmark data. Among enchodontid taxa, preopercle shape is extremely variable; therefore, sometimes this has been discretized in many different character states (e.g., Silva and Gallo, 2011), and incorporated in phylogenetic analyses (see Holloway et al, 2017;Díaz-Cruz et al, 2019b). Inclusion of the morphological variability present in the shape of this bone into phylogenetic analyses is a challenging task; therefore, characters 45 and 91 from the Díaz-Cruz et al (2019b) related to the preopercle, were re-coded in the current analysis.…”

“…The enchodontids have been known since the first half of the nineteenth century (Agassiz, 1833); however, their comprehensive study only began in the second half of the 20th century. Prior the present, seven enchodontid genera have been identified (Díaz-Cruz et al, 2019b, table 2); these were inhabitants of marine shallow environments in the peripheral and epicontinental seas of northern Africa [Egypt and Morocco (Arambourg, 1954;Bardet et al, 2017;Holloway et al, 2017)], America [Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and the United States (Silva-Santos and Salgado, 1969;Goody, 1976;Bogan and Agnolin, 2010;Schein et al, 2013;Gouiric-Cavalli et al, 2016)], Asia [Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Japan (Uyeno and Minakawa, 1983;Yabumoto and Uyeno, 1994;Chalifa, 1996;Forey et al, 2003;Kaddumi, 2009)]; and Europe [Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy (Goody, 1968(Goody, , 1969Cavin et al, 2012;Friedman et al, 2016)]. Goody (1969) explored the evolutionary relationships of enchodontids; however, the first phylogenetic hypothesis of the group was proposed by Fielitz (2004).…”