Reassessment of the Morphology of Scombroclupeoides Scutata Woodward, 1908, a Teleostean Fish from the Early Cretaceous of Bahia, with Comments on its Relationships
Scombroclupeoides scutata is a teleostean fish known from the Neocomian (non-marine lowermost Cretaceous) of the Morro do Barro Formation, Almada Basin, State of Bahia. This fish is very scarce in paleontological collections and most of available specimens are poorly preserved. In order to furnish additional morphological data as a framework for evaluating its systematic position, five complete and relatively well preserved specimens from the paleontological collection of the Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral were studied. The result indicates presence of informative features suggesting that S. scutata is more advanced than so-called leptolepids and proleptolepids (e.g., absence of suborbitals, loss of fringing fulcra, reduced number of branchiostegals, absence of preopercular process of hyomandibula, subequal-sized dorsal and ventral hypohyals) and that, on the other hand, indicate putative affinities with primitive euteleostean fishes.
