Marramà Giuseppe, Carnevale Giorgio, Naylor Gavin J P, Kriwet Jürgen
Department of Palaeontology University of Vienna Vienna Austria.
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra Università degli Studi di Torino Torino Italy.
Zool Scr. 2019 Mar;48(2):168-184. doi: 10.1111/zsc.12330. Epub 2018 Nov 28.
The Eocene whiptail stingrays of the family Dasyatidae from the Bolca Lagerstätte, NE Italy, are revised herein in detail. The analysis of the anatomical and morphometric features allows us to identify the species "" (Molin, 1861) as a junior synonym of "" (Volta, 1796), and to assign it to the new genus gen. n. This new taxon exhibits a unique combination of features (e.g., rhombic disc wider than long, elongated tail folds fail to reach the tip of the tail, thorns absent, single serrated tail sting, "caniniform" teeth on upper jaw, tooth crown ornamentation absent, 175-179 vertebrae, 108-117 pectoral radials, 24-27 pelvic radials and other features of clasper anatomy) that clearly support its attribution to the subfamily Neotrygoninae of the stingray family Dasyatidae. The morphological and phylogenetic affinities of gen. n. with the living neotrygonines ( and ) suggest a close association of this taxon with the tropical shallow-water habitats hypothesized for the Bolca palaeoenvironment during the early Eocene. Moreover, the analysis of the fossil occurrences of the neotrygonines provides new insights into the role of the Tethys for the origin and evolutionary history of certain whiptail stingrays.
本文对来自意大利东北部博尔卡化石库的始新世鲼科（Dasyatidae）鞭尾魟进行了详细修订。通过对解剖学和形态测量特征的分析，我们将“”物种（莫林，1861年）鉴定为“”（沃尔塔，1796年）的次异名，并将其归入新属 属。这个新分类单元具有独特的特征组合（例如，菱形盘宽大于长，细长的尾褶未到达尾尖，无棘，单锯齿状尾刺，上颌有“犬齿状”牙齿，无齿冠纹饰，175 - 179块椎骨，108 - 117块胸鳍辐状骨，24 - 27块骨盆辐状骨以及其他交接器解剖特征），这些特征明确支持将其归入魟科鲼亚科（Neotrygoninae）。 属与现存鲼亚科（ 和 ）在形态和系统发育上的亲缘关系表明，这个分类单元与始新世早期博尔卡古环境所假设的热带浅水栖息地密切相关。此外，对鲼亚科化石出现情况的分析为特提斯海在某些鞭尾魟的起源和进化历史中所起的作用提供了新的见解。
