Italophiopsis derasmoi gen. and sp. nov. (Ionoscopiformes, Italophiopsidae fam. nov.) from the cretaceous of Pietraroja (Italy)

Abstract

The skeleton of Italophiopsis derasmoi gen. and sp. nov., an ionoscopiform fish (Halecomorphi) from the marine Albian of Pietraroja (Campania, southern Italy), is studied in details. The new Italian genus has parietals and dermopterotics of approximately the same length, unornamented infraorbitals and diplospondylous vertebrae in the caudal region, three features characterizing Ophiopsidae. Italophiopsis also exhibits crests and fossae on the first abdominal vertebrae and thin ovoid and slightly ornamented scales, two characters that are absent in Ophiopsidae but announce the lateral fossae of the vertebrae and the thin ovoid amioid-like scales present in Ionoscopidae. Italophiopsis probably has around 20 supraneurals between the head and the dorsal fin, a number found in Ionoscopidae but differing from that of Ophiopsidae. Such a situation does not allow the inclusion Italophiopsis in one of these two families. The new family Italophiopsidae is erected and considered as intermediate between Ophiopsidae and Ionoscopidae.