Redescription of Barbus megacephalus Günther, 1876 and Thynnichthys amblyostoma von der Marck, 1876 (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) from probable Eocene deposits of Southeast Asia, and an assessment of their taxonomic positions

Abstract

Two cyprinid fishes from fossil deposits of Sumatra, Indonesia, were briefly described and named in 1876 as new species in extant genera. These taxa, despite being important early records for the family, have been excluded from later studies, probably because the cursory descriptions and lack of illustrations provided little data for other researchers. These two fish, Barbus megacephalus Günther and Thynnichthys amblyostoma von der Marck, are here fully described and illustrated. They are both removed from the extant genera and each is given its own new genus, as Sundabarbus megacephalus and Padangia amblyostoma. Both are assigned to the subfamily Barbinae (equivalent to the tribe Barbini). These two species are some of the oldest known members of the family, coming from deposits that are believed to be Eocene in age.

Keywords:

• Barbinae
• Cyprinidae
• Eocene
• Indonesia
• Sangkarewang Formation
• Sumatra

Keywords:

• http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D8BA98F2-FA84-4CFE-9739-6ADEB4D45A6B

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Kevin Seymour (ROM), Douglas Nelson (UMMZ), David Catania (CAS) and Jeffrey Williams (USNM) for lending comparative material, and to Emma Bernard (NHMUK) and Manual Röthel, Markus Wilmsen and Ronald Winkler (Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden) for providing information on type specimens and access to material and for facilitating my visits to their respective institutions. Thanks also to Juan Liu (State University of New York at Buffalo) for providing copies of a number of papers. I am particularly grateful to Jon Armbruster, an anonymous reviewer, and the editors for suggestions to improve the manuscript. Funding for this research is from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant 327448 to AMM.