par Taverne, Louis Paul 
Référence Bulletin - Institut royal des sciences naturelles de Belgique. Sciences de la terre, 74, page (73-87)
Publication Publié, 2004
Référence Bulletin - Institut royal des sciences naturelles de Belgique. Sciences de la terre, 74, page (73-87)
Publication Publié, 2004
Article révisé par les pairs
| Résumé : | The osteology of Libanechelys bultyncki gen. and sp. nov., a small eel from the marine Cenomanian of Lebanon, is studied in detail. This fish, which has already lost the pelvic girdle, retains numerous plesiomorphies linking it to the archaic eels from the Cenomanian-Turonian, such as the presence of an autogenous lateral ethmoid, of individualized ectopterygoid, entopterygoid and metapterygoid, of a posttemporal, of two epurals, of well developed preural neural spines 1 and 2 and ural neural arch 1, and of a dorsal fin separated from the caudal one which is still consisting of 20 rays. On the other hand, L. bultyncki shares with the modern eels some apomorphies, for instance the rigid articulation between the symplectic and the hyomandibular, the fusion (only partial here) between the premaxillae and the vomer, the preural neural spine 2 notably shorter than the preural neural spine 3, the partial fusion of the two first hypurals, the loss of the fifth and sixth hypurals and the contact between the anal fin and the caudal one. L. bultyncki exhibits also the fusion of the symplectic with the quadrate and a reduced ural centrum 2 fused with the third hypural. L. bultyncki differs from the other eels by its large autogenous autopalatine, its toothless vomer and the extreme smallness of its exoccipital. That justifies the erection of a new family, the Libanechelyidae. |
