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A new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt

Wadi El-Hitan, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, of the Fayum Depression in the northeast part of the Western Desert of Egypt, has produced a remarkable collection of Eocene vertebrates, in particular the fossil whales from which it derives its name. Here we describe a new genus and species of marine...

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Autores principales: El-Sayed, Sanaa E., Kora, Mahmoud A., Sallam, Hesham M., Claeson, Kerin M., Seiffert, Erik R., Antar, Mohammed S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5332075/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28248973
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172409
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author El-Sayed, Sanaa E.
Kora, Mahmoud A.
Sallam, Hesham M.
Claeson, Kerin M.
Seiffert, Erik R.
Antar, Mohammed S.
author_facet El-Sayed, Sanaa E.
Kora, Mahmoud A.
Sallam, Hesham M.
Claeson, Kerin M.
Seiffert, Erik R.
Antar, Mohammed S.
author_sort El-Sayed, Sanaa E.
collection PubMed
description Wadi El-Hitan, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, of the Fayum Depression in the northeast part of the Western Desert of Egypt, has produced a remarkable collection of Eocene vertebrates, in particular the fossil whales from which it derives its name. Here we describe a new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae), Qarmoutus hitanensis, from the base of the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, based on a partial neurocranium including the complete left side, partial right dentary, left suspensorium, two opercles, left pectoral girdle and spine, nuchal plates, first and second dorsal spines, Weberian apparatus and a disassociated series of abdominal vertebrae. All of the elements belong to the same individual and some of them were found articulated. Qarmoutus gen. nov. is the oldest and the most complete of the Paleogene marine catfishes unearthed from the Birket Qarun Formation. The new genus exhibits distinctive features not seen in other African Paleogene taxa, such as different sculpturing on the opercle and pectoral girdle with respect to that on the neurocranium and nuchal plates, denticulate ornamentation on the skull bones arranged in longitudinal rows and forming a radiating pattern on the sphenotic, pterotic, extrascapular and the parieto-supraoccipital, indentations or pitted ornamentation on the nuchal plates as well as the parieto-supraoccipital process, strut-like radiating pattern of ornamentation on the opercle from the proximal articulation to margins, longitudinal, curved, reticulate ridges and tubercular ornamentations on the cleithrum, sinuous articulation between the parieto-supraoccipital process and the anterior nuchal plate, long, narrow, and arrowhead shaped nuchal shield, very small otic capsules restricted to the prootic. Multiple parsimony and Bayesian morphological phylogenetic analyses of Ariidae, run with and without “molecular scaffolds”, yield contradictory results for the placement of Qarmoutus; the genus is either a phylogenetically basal ariid, or it is deeply nested within the ariid clade containing New World species of Sciades.
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spelling pubmed-53320752017-03-10 A new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt El-Sayed, Sanaa E. Kora, Mahmoud A. Sallam, Hesham M. Claeson, Kerin M. Seiffert, Erik R. Antar, Mohammed S. PLoS One Research Article Wadi El-Hitan, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, of the Fayum Depression in the northeast part of the Western Desert of Egypt, has produced a remarkable collection of Eocene vertebrates, in particular the fossil whales from which it derives its name. Here we describe a new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae), Qarmoutus hitanensis, from the base of the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, based on a partial neurocranium including the complete left side, partial right dentary, left suspensorium, two opercles, left pectoral girdle and spine, nuchal plates, first and second dorsal spines, Weberian apparatus and a disassociated series of abdominal vertebrae. All of the elements belong to the same individual and some of them were found articulated. Qarmoutus gen. nov. is the oldest and the most complete of the Paleogene marine catfishes unearthed from the Birket Qarun Formation. The new genus exhibits distinctive features not seen in other African Paleogene taxa, such as different sculpturing on the opercle and pectoral girdle with respect to that on the neurocranium and nuchal plates, denticulate ornamentation on the skull bones arranged in longitudinal rows and forming a radiating pattern on the sphenotic, pterotic, extrascapular and the parieto-supraoccipital, indentations or pitted ornamentation on the nuchal plates as well as the parieto-supraoccipital process, strut-like radiating pattern of ornamentation on the opercle from the proximal articulation to margins, longitudinal, curved, reticulate ridges and tubercular ornamentations on the cleithrum, sinuous articulation between the parieto-supraoccipital process and the anterior nuchal plate, long, narrow, and arrowhead shaped nuchal shield, very small otic capsules restricted to the prootic. Multiple parsimony and Bayesian morphological phylogenetic analyses of Ariidae, run with and without “molecular scaffolds”, yield contradictory results for the placement of Qarmoutus; the genus is either a phylogenetically basal ariid, or it is deeply nested within the ariid clade containing New World species of Sciades. Public Library of Science 2017-03-01 /pmc/articles/PMC5332075/ /pubmed/28248973 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172409 Text en © 2017 El-Sayed et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
El-Sayed, Sanaa E.
Kora, Mahmoud A.
Sallam, Hesham M.
Claeson, Kerin M.
Seiffert, Erik R.
Antar, Mohammed S.
A new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt
title A new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt
title_full A new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt
title_fullStr A new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt
title_full_unstemmed A new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt
title_short A new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt
title_sort new genus and species of marine catfishes (siluriformes; ariidae) from the upper eocene birket qarun formation, wadi el-hitan, egypt
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5332075/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28248973
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172409
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