Otoliths from the Middle Miocene of the Moravian Carpathian Foredeep revealed the presence of 84 nominal species of bony fishes, as well as 22 taxa identified in open nomenclature only. Two species, Ijimaia rara n. sp. and Coryphaenoides scrupus n. sp., are described as new. The otolith assemblage is quantitatively dominated by myctophids, but stomiiforms and macrourids are significantly represented as well. Bregmacerotids, gadids and trachichthyids are common, but only represented by a single species each. The genera Trachyscorpia, Serrivomer and Ijimaia document the first fossil records of these taxa and the genera Nansenia and Zenion are recorded for the first time in sediments of the Paratethys. A paleobathymetric analysis of the otolith assemblages indicates water depths greater than 400 m in the depressions of the Carpathian Foredeep in Moravia. The high frequency of otoliths of Gadiculus argenteus supports the onset of the cold phase of the Middle Miocene Climatic Transition during the Middle Badenian. The high proportion of Recent species (similar to 32%) in the otolith association of the entire Badenian of the Central Paratethys also documents the rise of modern fishes in the wider Mediterranean area since the early Middle Miocene. |
