Fish remains described from the early Miocene lacustrine Bannockburn Formation of Central Otago, New Zealand, consist of several thousand otoliths and one skeleton plus another disintegrated skull. One species, Mataichthys bictenatus Schwarzhans, Scofield, Tennyson, and T. Worthy gen. et sp. nov., an eleotrid, is established on a skeleton with otoliths in situ. The soft embedding rock and delicate, three−dimensionally preserved fish bones were studied by CT−scanning technology rather than physical preparation, except where needed to extract the otolith. Fourteen species of fishes are described, 12 new to science and two in open nomenclature, representing the families Galaxiidae (Galaxias angustiventris, G. bobmcdowalli, G. brevicauda, G. papilionis, G. parvirostris, G. tabidus), Retropinnidae (Prototroctes modestus, P. vertex), and Eleotridae (Mataichthys bictenatus, M. procerus, M. rhinoceros, M. taurinus). These findings prove that most of the current endemic New Zealand/southern Australia freshwater fish fauna was firmly established in New Zealand as early as 19–16 Ma ago. Most fish species indicate the presence of large fishes, in some cases larger than Recent species of related taxa, for instance in the eleotrid genus Mataichthys when compared to the extant Gobiomorphus. The finding of a few otoliths from marine fishes corroborates the age determination of the Bannockburn Formation as the Altonian stage of the New Zealand marine Tertiary stratigraphy.Werner Schwarzhans, R. Paul Scofield, Alan J.D. Tennyson, Jennifer P. Worthy, and Trevor H. Worth

Articulated fossil fish skeletons with otoliths in situ provide a unique opportunity to link these two, otherwise independent data sets of skeletons and otoliths. They provide calibration points for otoliths also adding important information for the evolutionary interpretation of fishes. Here, we review nine articulated skeletons of gobies from the early Sarmatian of Dolje, Croatia, and Belgrade, Serbia, which were previously regarded as members of a single gobiid and a callionymid species. We found them to represent five different gobiid species belonging to five different genera, four of which are related to extant endemic Ponto-Caspian gobiid lineages. The species are: Aphia macrophthalma n.sp., Proneogobius n.gen. pullus (the only previously recognized species), Protobenthophilus n.gen. squamatus n.sp., Economidichthys triangularis (a species first described based on otoliths) and Hesperichthys n.gen. reductus n.sp. Five specimens contained otoliths in situ and a sixth shows imprints of otoliths which unfortunately must have been lost in the past, probably during preparation of the fossil. Together, they represent all five species recognized by skeletons, and three are linked to otolith-based species. Isolated otoliths have been reviewed from a variety of collections from Sarmatian strata in Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Romania and Slovakia resulting in the description of five new otolith-based species: Benthophilus? ovisulcus n.sp., Benthophilus styriacus n.sp., Protobenthophilus strashimirovi n.sp., Economidichthys altidorsalis n.sp. and Knipowitschia bulgarica n.sp. Our review demonstrates that all major endemic Ponto-Caspian gobiid lineages were already present during Sarmatian times, thereby pushing back their origin by approximately 5–10 myr in comparison to previously published dates for dichotomies. In our assessment, the origination of these lineages is linked to the early stage of separation of the Paratethys from the world oceans and the ecological changes that occurred during that time. These geological events parallel a dramatic increase in gobiid radiation and speciation, giving rise to many lineages, not all of which have persisted until today.

Lanternfishes currently represent one of the dominant groups of mesopelagic fishes in terms of abundance, biomass, and diversity. Their otolith record dominates pelagic sediments below 200 m in dredges, especially during the entire Neogene. Here we provide an analysis of their diversity and rise to dominance primarily based on their otolith record. The earliest unambiguous fossil myctophids are known based on otoliths from the late Paleocene and early Eocene. During their early evolutionary history, myctophids were likely not adapted to a high oceanic lifestyle but occurred over shelf and upper-slope regions, where they were locally abundant during the middle Eocene. A distinct upscaling in otolith size is observed in the early Oligocene, which also marks their earliest occurrence in bathyal sediments. We interpret this transition to be related to the change from a halothermal deep-ocean circulation to a thermohaline regime and the associated cooling of the deep ocean and rearrangement of nutrient and silica supply. The early Oligocene myctophid size acme shows a remarkable congruence with diatom abundance, the main food resource for the zooplankton and thus for myctophids and whales. The warmer late Oligocene to early middle Miocene period was characterized by an increase in disparity of myctophids but with a reduction in their otolith sizes. A second and persisting secular pulse in myctophid diversity (particularly within the genus Diaphus ) and increase in size begins with the “biogenic bloom” in the late Miocene, paralleled with diatom abundance and mysticete gigantism.

The first record of fossil teleostean otoliths from Antarctica is reported. The fossils were obtained from late Early Eocene shell beds of the La Meseta Formation, Seymour Island that represent the last temperate marine climate phase in Antarctica prior to the onset of cooling and subsequent glaciation during the late Eocene. A total of 17 otolith-based teleost taxa are recognized, with 10 being identifiable to species level containing nine new species and one new genus: Argentina antarctica sp. nov., Diaphus? marambionis sp. nov., Macruronus eastmani sp. nov., Coelorinchus balushkini sp. nov., Coelorinchus nordenskjoeldi sp. nov., Palimphemus seymourensis sp. nov., Hoplobrotula? antipoda sp. nov., Notoberyx cionei gen. et sp. nov. and Cepola anderssoni sp. nov. Macruronus eastmani sp. nov. is also known from the late Eocene of Southern Australia, and Tripterophycis immutatus Schwarzhans, widespread in the southern oceans during the Eocene, has been recorded from New Zealand, southern Australia, and now Antarctica. The otolith assemblage shows a typical composition of temperate fishes dominated by gadiforms, very similar at genus and family levels to associations known from middle Eocene strata of New Zealand and the late Eocene of southern Australia, but also to the temperate Northern Hemisphere associations from the Paleocene of Denmark. The Seymour Island fauna bridges a gap in the record of global temperate marine teleost faunas during the early Eocene climate maximum. The dominant gadiforms are interpreted as the main temperate faunal component, as in the Paleocene of Denmark. Here they are represented by the families Moridae, Merlucciidae (Macruroninae), Macrouridae and Gadidae. Nowadays Gadidae are a chiefly Northern Hemisphere temperate family. Moridae, Macruroninae and Macrouridae live today on the lower shelf to deep-water or mesopelagically with Macruroninae being restricted to the Southern Ocean. The extant endemic Antarctic gadiform family Muraenolepididae is missing, as are the dominant modern Antarctic fishes of the perciform suborder Notothenioidei. Recently, there has been much debate on isolated jaw bones of teleost fishes found in the La Meseta Formation and whether they would represent gadiforms (Merlucciidae in this case) or some early, primitive notothenioid. Otoliths are known to often complement rather than duplicate skeletal finds. With this in mind, we conclude that our otolith data support the presence of gadiforms in the early Eocene of Antarctica while it does not rule out the presence of notothenioids at the same time. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A30E5364-0003-4467-B902-43A41AD456CC

Fish otoliths are described from the Lower Paleocene (Danian) and Middle Paleocene (Selandian) from Sjælland in Denmark. A total of 44 species are described, 23 as newly established and nine in open nomenclature. Twelve species (including seven new species) have been obtained from the Danian poorly consolidated coral limestone at Fakse and 39 species (including 19 new species) from the Selandian at localities near Copenhagen. Both stages have previously been poorly known for otoliths in the North Sea Basin, and are described from only two previous publications, i.e. Koken in 1885 from the Selandian of Copenhagen and Roedel in 1930 who described otoliths from erratic ice age boulders in north-east Germany. The original material of both workers has been revised in this bulletin. Otoliths are well known elsewhere in the North Sea Basin since Upper Paleocene (Thanetian) times and are described from the London Basin and from Belgium. Palaeographic, palaeoecological and biostratigraphic implications of the otolith findings in the Paleocene of the North Sea Basin are discussed. Two new genera and 23 new species are introduced and described. The new taxa are: Genartina hauniensis n. sp., genus Anguillidarum semisphaeroides n. sp., Conger illaesus n. sp., Rhechias angulosus n. sp., genus Clupeidarum rectiventralis n. sp., genus Salmonidarum n. sp., Protargentinolithus procerus n. sp., Argentina longistrostris n. sp., Aulopus tortus n. sp., genus Myctophidarum schnetleri n. sp., genus ?Percopsiformorum enigmaticus n. sp., Palaeogadus sinangulatus n. sp., Molvia palaeomorpha n. sp., Protocolliolus amorphus n. sp., Coryphaenoides amager n. sp., Hymenocephalus rosenkrantzi n. sp., genus Bythitidarm rasmussenae n. sp., genus Veliferidarum harderi n. sp., genus Zeiformorum janni n. sp., Centroberyx fragilis n. sp., Scorpaena corallophilus n. sp., genus Gempylidarum merus n. sp. and Ostracion pergravis n. sp.