Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand abstracts

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Probable perciform fish scales from a Miocene freshwater lake deposit, Central Otago, New Zealand

R. M. McDowall¹ and D. E. Lee²

¹National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 8602, Christchurch, New Zealand. r.mcdowall@niwa.co.nz
²Department of Geology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Abstract  Two Miocene fossil scales, 20–15 million years old, are reported from Bannockburn, near Cromwell in Central Otago. Their explicit identity cannot be determined, but they appear to be from a perciform, perhaps a percichthyid, family of basal perciform fishes widely present in southern cool-temperate lands. Whatever their identity, the scales came from a fish species not formerly reported from New Zealand fresh waters and they therefore indicate former, unrecognised diversity in the fauna.

Keywords  Central Otago; Bannockburn Formation; fish scales; perciforms

R04023; Received and accepted 1 July 2005; Online publication date 21 September 2005
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand Volume 35, Number 3, September, 2005, pp 339–344

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