Mid-Cretaceous acanthomorph fishes with the description of a new species from the Turonian of Lac des Bois, Northwest Territories, Canada

Abstract

A single specimen of a new acanthomorph fish is described from a Turonian locality sampling the northern part of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway. This brings to three the number of acanthomorphs from Lac des Bois, Northwest Territories, Canada. The previously named acanthomorph, Boreiohydrias dayi (Boriohydriidae), was placed in the Polymixiiformes. The second, represented by a poorly preserved fish, was left unnamed and incertae sedis in Acanthomorpha. The new one described here, Cumbaaichthys oxyrhynchus gen. et sp. nov. cannot be easily placed in any previously described families. This fish is placed in the Polymixiiformes based on the caudal skeleton having 18 principal rays (16 branched), and having a full neural spine on the second preural centrum. Polymixiiform relationships are not well established but they are the subject of several current studies; therefore, the new acanthomorph is placed incertae sedis within this order but with the understanding that this placement may be refined with future work. Previous studies have suggested that acanthomorphs may have flourished with warming climates of the Cenomanian–Turonian. A comprehensive survey of named acanthomorphs from mid-Cretaceous deposits shows there are more species known from the Cenomanian rather than the Turonian, although this may be biased by the age of known fossiliferous deposits.