Capros aper (Linnaeus, 1758)

Schwarzhans, Werner, Klots, Oleksandr, Ryabokon, Tamara & Kovalchuk, Oleksandr, 2022, A rare window into a back-reef fish community from the middle Miocene (late Badenian) Medobory Hills barrier reef in western Ukraine, reconstructed mostly by means of otoliths, Swiss Journal of Palaeontology (18) 141 (1), pp. 1-35 : 24

Capros aper (Linnaeus, 1758)

Figure 9h

1992 Capros parvus —Menzel: fig. 2.

2010 Capros aper (Linnaeus, 1758) —Schwarzhans: pl. 111, *figs.* 1–4 (and references and discussion therein).

Material 1 otolith, Mlyntsi, NMB P1206.

Discussion Otoliths of Capros are among the most extraordinary and easy-to-recognize teleost otoliths. Tey are characterized by a high-bodied shape, a strongly convex inner face, and a deep sulcus with a short and relatively narrow ostium and a long cauda that touches the posterior rim of the otolith or opens to it. Today, the genus Capros is monospecific with C. aper being distributed in the East Atlantic from Norway to Senegal and in the Mediterranean ( Froese & Pauly, 2022). Otoliths of Capros aper are known from the late early Miocene and middle Miocene of the North Sea Basin ( Schwarzhans, 2010) and thus represent one of the earliest occurrences of an extant species in the fossil record of Europe. A related species and potential ancestor, Capros siccus Schwarzhans, 2008 , from the late Oligocene represents the first fossil otolith-based record of the genus. Te relationships of Capros ? sonodae Nolf & Lapierre, 1979, from the middle Eocene of France remain elusive. Tis is the first record of an otolith of Capros aper from the Paratethys, indicating a relatively wide geographic distribution at the time not unlike the situation today. A distinct new species of the genus Capros is being described from the middle Sarmatian s.l. of the Paratethys by Bratishko et al. (ongoing research), which probably derived as an endemic offshoot of C. aper in the Eastern Paratethys, while C. aper apparently persisted outside of the Paratethys (ongoing research).

Figures

Fig. 9 Otoliths of Haemulidae, Serranidae, Sparidae, Leiognathidae and Caproidae:a (reversed)—Brachydeuterus speronatus (Bassoli,1906), Kozatskyi Yar, NMNHU-P PI 2549. b, c Serranidae indet., b (broken and repaired), c (reversed), Kozatskyi Yar,NMNHU-P PI 2579. d, e Pshekharus yesinorum Bannikov & Kotlyar, 2015, Mlyntsi, NMNHU-P PI 2578. f (reversed)—Leiognathidae indet., Shydlivshchyna, NMB P1214. g Perciformes indet., Shydlivshchyna,NMB P1221. h (reversed) – Capros aper (Linnaeus,1758), Mlyntsi, NMB P1206