DOI: 10.15468/m7u3em
title: Late Oligocene fishes (Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes) from the Catahoula Formation in Wayne County, Mississippi, USA

description: This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Cicimurri, David J., Ebersole, Jun A., Stringer, Gary L., Starnes, James E., Phillips, George E. (2025): Late Oligocene fishes (Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes) from the Catahoula Formation in Wayne County, Mississippi, USA. European Journal of Taxonomy 984 (1): 1-131, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2025.984.2851, URL: https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/2851/12957Abstract. Isolated elasmobranch and teleost teeth, jaws, otoliths, scales, vertebrae, and fin spines were recovered from the upper Oligocene (Chattian) Catahoula Formation in Wayne County, Mississippi, USA.A total of 13 551 specimens were examined and 12 340 of these were identified at least to the ordinal level. These remains represent 49 unequivocal fish taxa, viz. 29 elasmobranchs and 20 teleosts. The 3614 elasmobranch remains indicate that Carcharhiniformes is the most diverse group of Elasmobranchii, with 12 taxa belonging to five families. Orectolobiformes and Lamniformes are represented by far fewer taxa (three and four, respectively). Carcharhinus acuarius (Probst, 1879) constitutes 49% of the total number of shark teeth in our sample. Ten batoids have been identified within Myliobatiformes (seven taxa) and Rhinopristiformes (three taxa). Partial teeth of durophagous myliobatids (three genera) are the most abundant batoid remains, constituting 41% of the total number of ray fossils. However, teeth of Dasyatidae and Rhynchobatus cf. pristinus (Probst, 1877) are abundant and represent 36.5% and 15.4%, respectively, of the specimens identified. Herein, we erect five new elasmobranch taxa, including Galeocerdo platycuspidatum sp. nov., Hemipristis intermedia sp. nov., Hypanus? heterodontus sp. nov., “ Sphyrna ” gracile sp. nov., and “ Sphyrna ” robustum sp. nov.The Catahoula Formation sample includes over 9935 teleost fossils, which constitutes 73% of the total fish sample. Nine bony fish taxa are represented solely by teeth, jaw elements, or fin spines. Although otoliths are much less common than the other identifiable remains (409 versus roughly 8430, respectively), they allowed us to identify four taxa not known from other skeletal remains. Albulidae, Sciaenidae, and Sparidae are represented by isolated teeth, jaw elements, and otoliths, but we could not ascertain whether the various teeth and jaw elements are conspecific with the otolith-based species we identified. The remains of Sciaenidae (teeth, jaw elements, otoliths) dominate the Catahoula Formation bony fish assemblage, constituting 70% of the teleost specimens identified at least to the ordinal level. Our sample includes the first Oligocene occurrence of Tetraodontidae in the Western Hemisphere.The vertebrate assemblage within the Catahoula Formation at the study site indicates an estuarine depositional environment, which is consistent with previous interpretations based on lithology. At the study site the Catahoula Formation disconformably overlies the Paynes Hammock Limestone, and we believe the disconformable contact locally represents the Rupelian (early Oligocene)/Chattian (late Oligocene) boundary. The fish fauna described herein is therefore of Chattian age.