New information about the anatomy of a peculiar fish of the genus Hipposyngnathus Daniltshenko, 1960

Abstract

An extraordinary pipefish genus Hipposyngnathus has been described from Paleogene and Neogene sediments from several localities in the world. This fish is clearly recognizable by its unpaired abdominal ventral ledge, but, unfortunately, no authors have been able to provide a detailed description of the skull until today. The newly discovered specimen from the Oligocene locality Hermanowa (Poland) is sufficiently preserved and allow for the first time the description and reconstruction of the skull morphology in detail. The skull shows a typical elongation of the preorbital area, tiny terminal jaws, a reduced number of circumorbital bones and a typical syngnathid cranial architecture. The snout is relatively short, but low. Separate skull bones have been identified.