Teleost Fish Otoliths from Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina (Yorktown Formation: Pliocene)

Abstract

Pliocene fossiliferous exposures at the Lee Creek Mine, Yorktown Formation, deposits yielded 8808 teleost otoliths. These represented at least 45 taxa distributed among 17 teleostean families including the following numbers of species by genus: Agonidae? (1), Ammodytidae (1), Bothidae (2, possibly 3), Branchiostegidae (1), Congridae (5), Cynoglossidae (1), Gadidae (5), Merlucciidae (3), Myctophidae (1), Ophidiidae (7), Pleuronectidae (1), Pomadasyidae (1), Pterothrissidae (1), Sciaenidae (7), Serranidae (4), Triglidae (2, possibly 3), Uranoscopidae (2). Generic names were assigned to 27 kinds of otoliths: Ammodytes, Anisotremus, Astroscopus, Brotula, Centropristis, Ceratoscopelus, Citharichthys, Cynoscion, Diplectrum, Equetus , Gadus, Kathetostoma, Leiostomus, Lepophidium, Lopholatilus, Melanogrammus, Merlangiogadus, Merluccius, Microgadus , Micropogonias, Ophidion, Pogonias, Prionotus , Pterothrissus, Sciaenops , Symphurus, Urophycis. Twenty-two of these represent the first North American Pliocene record for the genus ( Anisotremus , Astroscopus, Brotula, Centropristis, Cynoscion, Diplectrum, Equetus, Gadus, Kathetostoma, Leiostomus, Lepophidium, Lopholatilus, Melanogrammus, Merlangiogadus, Microgadus, Micropogonias, Ophidion, Pogonias, Prionotus, Pterothrissus, Symphurus, Urophycis ). Of these, six represent the initial fossil record anywhere (Astroscopus, Diplectrum, Equetus, Kathetostoma, Leiostomus, Lopholatilus). Lopholatilus represents the first fossil record for the family Branchiostegidae. Otoliths from at least two kinds of fish are from extinct genera (Merlangiogadus and sciaenid species A), and those of the 13 unnamed taxa may represent extinct species. Individuals of all of the listed taxa routinely inhabit waters shallower than 200 meters, except Ceratoscopelus and Merluccius albidus. Based upon the three most abundant kinds of fish otoliths (Lepophidium, Merluccius, and sciaenid species A), comprising 88 percent of the recovered otoliths, it is suggested that the Lee Creek Mine fauna may have been deposited in depths of 60 to 100 meters.