Fossil Record 22(1): 1-23, doi: 10.5194/fr-22-1-2019
On a remarkable new species of Tharsis, a Late Jurassic teleostean fish from southern Germany: its morphology and phylogenetic relationships
expand article infoGloria Arratia‡, Hans-Peter Schultze§, Helmut Tischlinger|
‡ University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States of America§ Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Dyche Hall, 1345 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, United States of America| independent researcher: Tannenweg 16, 85134 Stammham, Germany
© Gloria Arratia, Hans-Peter Schultze, Helmut Tischlinger.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Arratia G, Schultze H-P, Tischlinger H (2019) On a remarkable new species of Tharsis, a Late Jurassic teleostean fish from southern Germany: its morphology and phylogenetic relationships. Fossil Record 22(1): 1-23. https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-22-1-2019
Open Access
Abstract

A complete morphological description, as preservation permits, is providedfor a new Late Jurassic fish species (Tharsis elleri) together witha revision and comparison of some morphological features of Tharsis dubius, one of the most common species from the Solnhofen limestone,southern Germany. An emended diagnosis of the genus Tharsis – nowincluding two species – is presented. The new species is characterized by acombination of morphological characters, such as the presence of a completesclerotic ring formed by two bones placed anterior and posterior to the eye,a moderately short lower jaw with quadrate-mandibular articulation below theanterior half of the orbit, caudal vertebrae with neural and haemal archesfused to their respective vertebral centrum, and parapophyses fused to theirrespective centrum. A phylogenetic analysis based on 198 characters and43 taxa is performed. Following the phylogenetic hypothesis, the sister-grouprelationship Ascalaboidae plus more advanced teleosts stands above the nodeof Leptolepis coryphaenoides. Both nodes have strong support among teleosts. The resultsconfirm the inclusion of Ascalabos, Ebertichthys andTharsis as members of this extinct family. Tharsis ellerin. sp. (LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:6434E6F5-2DDD-48CF-A2B1-827495FE46E6,date: 13 December 2018) is so far restricted to one Upper Jurassic Germanlocality – Wegscheid Quarry near Schernfeld, Eichstätt – whereasTharsis dubius is known not only from Wegscheid Quarry, but alsofrom different localities in the Upper Jurassic of Bavaria, Germany, andCerin in France.