ABSTRACT
Two specimens of lightfish Vinciguerria sp. were discovered in the rock beds of the middle to late Miocene Kurasi Formation at the south-western coast of the Sakhalin Island, Eastern Russia. A detailed study of their morphology shows that this form cannot be assigned to any known species, although it possesses some similarity with the Oligocene species †V. obscura. Considered together with other Miocene congeners this form demonstrates a high morphological diversity of the Neogene lightfishes. Some aspects of the evolution of the genus during the last 40 M.y. are discussed.
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our sincere thanks to Alexandre F. Bannikov (Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) and Werner Schwarzhans (University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark) for their valuable comments and corrections which greatly improved the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.