Pseudosciades gen. nov.

(Figs 1–3, 24G, 37)

ZooBank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 0A403C08- B65C-4292-B708-2B7E1AC9456D.

Type species: Arius sona Hamilton, 1822 . Diagnosis

Posterior branches of mesethmoid moderately long, delimiting between one-fourth and one-half of anterior cranial fontanel length (8, 0> 1); epioccipital dorsally visible (41, 0> 1); margin of parieto-supraoccipital process contacting nuchal plate convex (47, 0> 1); lateral margins of orbitosphenoid progressively diverging anteriorly (63, 0> 1); lateral and mesial portions of premaxilla of different sizes (121, 0> 1); anteroventral portion of opercle subtrapezoidal, very long (127, 1> 0); metapterygoid anterior process truncate (138, 0> 1); posterior end of urohyal truncated (158, 0> 2); posterolateral processes of urohyal posteriorly oriented, forming an angle smaller than 60° (161, 0> 1); Müllerian ramus distal one-third markedly curved (208, 1> 2); nuchal plate anterior margin slightly concave (219, 0> 1).

Ambiguous optimization: Posterior cranial fontanel formed exclusively within frontals (25, 0> 1).

Etymology

Pseudo from Latin, meaning false, in reference to its convergent morphology with the Neotropical genus Sciades . Gender: masculine.

Included species

Pseudosciades sona (Hamilton, 1822) .

Habitat and distribution: Brackish and marine waters, South and Southeast Asia (Fig. 24).

Remarks

Pseudosciades sona is an Old World species that shares with Sciades parkeri (type species of the New World genus Sciades) a medial groove of neurocranium delimited mainly by frontal bones, anterior and median nuchal plates forming a shield-like structure, and nuchal plate overlapping parietosupraoccipital, but were shown to be not closely related in the total-evidence analysis or in a previous molecular study (Betancur-R. 2009).