A New Genus of Chimaerid Fish (Holocephali, Chimaeridae) from the Upper Oligocene Sooke Formation of British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

© 2020, by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. A chimaeroid mandibular dental plate from the nearshore upper Oligocene Sooke Formation west of Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, is described here as a new genus of chimaerid fish (Holocephali, Chimaeridae), Canadodus suntoki, gen. et sp. nov. The new genus differs from mandibular plates of both Recent and Cenozoic Chimaeridae (Chimaera, Hydrolagus) in having a more robust plate with a massive symphyseal tritor filled by laminated whitlockin, the presence of a large compound median tritor and a small inner tritor, as well as the absence of solid whitlockin in the dental structure. The chimaerid individual is estimated to have measured nearly 1 m in total body length. This is a first record of a Paleogene chimaeroid fish in both British Columbia and Canada and only the second record from the Oligocene of the northern Pacific. In addition, the species Chimaera gosseleti Winkler, 1880, is transferred to the genus Harriotta, resulting in the new combination Harriotta gosseleti (Winkler, 1880).