Redescription of aEuro Cobitis longipectoralis Zhou, 1992 (Cypriniformes: Cobitidae) from late early Miocene of East China

Here we revise a fossil cobitid species aEuro Cobitis longipectoralis Zhou, 1992, based mainly on a well-preserved specimen collected recently from the taxon's type locality of the late early Miocene of Shanwang, Shandong Province, East China. The new specimen, along with those collected by Zhou, enables us to provide an emended diagnosis and more detailed description of the species by focusing on the characters such as the structures of the suborbital spine and the presence and shape of the lamina circularis at the base of the second pectoral fin ray in adult males, the presence of a frontoparietal fontanelle, and a quadrate-metapterygoid fenestra, etc. The long pectoral fin, initially considered by Zhou as the most important character of the species, however, turns out to be not diagnostic for the species. aEuro Cobitis longipectoralis Zhou, 1992 is not only the most informative and best-preserved early cobitid fossil known thus far but also the only and earliest cobitid fossil from East Asia.