2026/01/01 by Chieh-Hsuan Lee, Tomáš Přikryl, Yu-Chieh Hsu +1 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Cephalopods and Marine Biology #Ichthyology and Marine Biology #Marine animal studies overview
paper · pdf · doi:10.26879/1668
openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/04/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
This study reports two semi-articulated tetraodontid pufferfish fossils from the Liuchungchi Formation of the Niubu area, Chiayi County, southern Taiwan (Early Pleistocene; formation-level age ~1.95-1.35Ma).The material comprises an almost complete skull and fragmentary viscerocranial elements and is housed in the Chiayi Municipal Museum.The assignment of Tetraodontidae is supported by the characteristic beaklike jaws composed of discrete premaxillary and dentary elements with prominent midline interdigitations, together with associated dermal spinules.Comparative assessment of the opercular series, suspensorium (including the pterygo-quadrate complex), and neurocranial proportions supports the assignment to the extant genus Arothron Mller, 1841.These specimens represent the first fossil record of Arothron and the first tetraodontid record from Taiwan, and they provide a rare data point for tetraodontiform cranial preservation in the western Pacific, expanding the taxonomic coverage of Taiwan's fish fossil record.