Mobula fragilis (Cappetta, 1970)

Adnet, Sylvain, Cappetta, Henri, Guinot, Guillaume & Sciara, Giuseppe Notarbartolo Di, 2012, Evolutionary history of the devilrays (Chondrichthyes: Myliobatiformes) from fossil and morphological inference, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 166 (1), pp. 132-159 : 139

† MOBULA FRAGILIS CAPPETTA, 1970

Synonymy: Manta fragilis Cappetta, 1970 ; † Paramobula fragilis ( Pfeil, 1981) , † Mobula cappettai Jonet, 1976 .

Occurrences: Late Oligocene of South Carolina, USA ( Cicimurri & Knight, 2009), Middle Miocene of USA ( Müller, 1999; Purdy et al., 2001), southern France ( Cappetta, 1970), and Serravallian of Portugal ( Jonet, 1976).

Remarks: Pfeil (1981: 366) erected a new genus † Paramobula from the holotype of † Mo. fragilis , considering that it represents a peculiar mobulid characterized by mesiodistally elongate teeth with a hollow labial face of crown marked by numerous folds and grooves, precluding a strong interlock. Cappetta & Stringer (2002) and Cappetta (2006) subsequently considered † Paramobula as congeneric with Mobula contrary to Cicimurri & Knight (2009) who accepted the generic distinction, although the latter authors did not exclude that † Paramobula fragilis could be included in the unclear heterodonty of † Plinthicus . Cicimurri & Knight (2009) included in this genus part of the material published by Case (1980: pl. 10, fig. 2a–e) from the Middle–Late Oligocene. † Mobula cappettai Jonet, 1976 was described from isolated teeth from Costa de Caparica ( Portugal) and recovered with † Mo. fragilis , † Mo. loupianensis , and † Mo. pectinata ( Jonet, 1976) . However, after examination of material coming from the type locality we consider it a synonym of † Mo. fragilis based on the shared convex oral face and straight root, considered as diagnostic by Jonet (1976: 60–61).