A new pufferfish (Teleostei, Tetraodontidae) from the Middle Miocene of St. Margarethen, Austria

Articulated skeletal remains of tetraodontid pufferfishes are rather rare in the fossil record. To date, the only known relatively entire fossil pufferfishes are the few specimens belonging to the extinct genera Eotetraodon and Archaeotetraodon, from the Eocene and Oligo-Miocene, respectively. A new genus and species of tetraodontid pufferfish, Leithaodon sandroi gen. et sp. nov., is described herein from the Middle Miocene fish-bearing corallinacean limestone of St. Margarethen, Burgenland, eastern Austria. This new taxon is based on a single, nearly complete specimen that exhibits a unique combination of features (sphenotic articulating with the supraoccipital, lateral ethmoid in contact with the palatine, anal fin origin slightly behind the posterior end of the dorsal fin base, 11(12) dorsal fin pterygiophores, but only six anal fin pterygiophores, and slender elongate ventral postcleithrum) that distinguish it from all other tetraodontids, fossil and extant. The paleoecology of this new taxon also is discussed.