Sparus brusinai ( Gorjanović-Kramberger, 1882 )

Gol’din, Pavel, Haiduc, Bogdan Stelian, Kovalchuk, Oleksandr, Górka, Marcin, Otryazhyi, Pavlo, Brânzilă, Mihai, Păun, Elena Ionela, Barkaszi, Zoltán, Ţibuleac, Paul & Răţoi, Bogdan Gabriel, 2020, The Volhynian (late Middle Miocene) marine fishes and mammals as proxies for the onset of the Eastern Paratethys re-colonisation by vertebrate fauna, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 43) 23 (3), pp. 1-20 : 7

Sparus brusinai ( Gorjanović-Kramberger, 1882)

Figure 3F

2000 Serranus sp. ; Tatarinov.

Material and locality. Almost complete skeleton; Hrushivtsi.

Description. The body is 29 cm long; its dorsal profile is convex, while the ventral one is rather flattened. Maximum body depth is about 9.5 cm (38% standard length (SL)) at the beginning of the dorsal fin. The head is noticeably shorter than body depth comprising 30% SL. The orbital diameter equals 22% head length. There are small caniniform and molariform teeth arranged in a few rows on dentary. Three large supraneurals are seen anterior to the dorsal fin, which consists of nine preserved spines and 12 soft rays. The number of rays in the pectoral and ventral fins cannot be counted. The anal fin has three spines, the anteriormost of which is the shortest, and the second one is the longest and robust. The forked caudal fin consists of 17 principal rays.

Remarks. The general body shape, the presence of various tooth morphotypes, multi-row dentition, smooth posterior margin of the preopercle, three large supraneuralia, the structure of dorsal, anal, and caudal fins, as well as a number of metric characters (maximum body depth, head length, orbital diameter) allowed us to identify this specimen as Sparus brusinai .