Fossil prowfish, Zaprora koreana, sp. nov. (Pisces, Zaproridae), from the Neogene of South Korea

First Deep-Sea Shark Fossil Teeth from the Miocene of South Korea

“…While earlier studies on benthic foraminifera and stomatopods suggested that the Duho Formation was deposited under shallow marine conditions on a continental shelf (Kim and Choi, 1977;Yun, 1985), more recent studies have suggested a deep-sea accumulation model possibly of up to 500-2000 m depositional depth based on the occurrences of fossils such as Chondrites and Vinciguerria (Jung and Lee, 2009;Seong et al, 2009;Kim and Paik, 2013;Nam and Nazarkin, 2018;Nam et al, 2019). Th e tooth crowns of the specimens described in this work are relatively well-preserved, suggesting that these were also deposited in a low-energy, deep-water environment and the possibility that these represent the ones transported from the shallow marine environment by turbiditic currents is unlikely as such processes would severely damage the tooth (Seong et al, 2009;Jovanović et al, 2019).…”

“…It is recognized that mesopelagic or other deep-water bony fi shes occupy signifi cant portions in diet of modern representatives of Mitsukurina and Dalatias (e. g., Duff y, 1997; Ergüden et al, 2017). Various bony fi sh fossils including Pleuronichthys, Vinciguerria and Zaprora previously were reported from the Duho Formation and these are assumed to be mesopelagic or benthic fi shes (Ko and Nam, 2016;Nam and Nazarkin, 2018;Nam et al, 2019). Th erefore, it is reasonable to assume that Mitsukurina cf.…”

“…Various important marine fi shes were found in Miocene deposits of the Pohang Basin in South Korea, but only very few records have been reported so far despite their high importance in understanding evolutionary dynamics of marine organisms in East Asia (e. g., Choi and Lee, 2017;Nam and Nazarkin, 2018;Nam et al, 2019). Within the fossil ichthyofauna of the Pohang Basin, chondrichthyans represent one of the most poorly understood groups and so far, only two juvenile teeth of a single pelagic lamnid shark, Cosmopolitodus hastalis have been described (Kim et al, 2018;Yun, 2020).…”

Phylogenetic Classification of Living and Fossil Ray-Finned Fishes (Actinopterygii)

“…The earliest fossil Zoarcoidea include †Zaprora koreana from the Middle Miocene (16.0-11.6 Ma) of Korea (Nam and Nazarkin 2018) and the pan-pholids †Agnevichthys gretchinae and †Palaeopholis laevis from the Serravallian of Russia (Nazarkin 2002). Bayesian relaxed molecular clock analyses of Zoarcoidea result in an average posterior crown age estimate of 29.9 million years ago, with the credible interval ranging between 23.0 and 37.2 million years ago (Ghezelayagh et al 2022) S20).…”