Congridae

Congridae gen. et sp. indet. Fig. 24E–F Material examined UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – Mississippi • 1 sagitta; Catahoula Formation; MMNS VP-12073. Description The sagitta is oval to somewhat elliptic in outline (sensu Smale et al. 1995) and the margins are rather smooth. The height/length ratio is 0.55. The inner face varies from nearly flat to very slightly convex. The sulcus is undivided, slants very slightly in the posteroventral direction, and extends across approximately 75% of the inner face. The sulcus tapers at the anterior and the posterior, and it appears to reach the anterior margin, possibly through a shallow ostial channel. There is a conspicuous depressed area, somewhat rectangular in shape, above the sulcus. The outer face is only slightly more convex than the inner face. Remarks The otolith described above exhibits the typical congrid feature of having an undivided sulcus (Fig. 24E). MMNS VP-12073 differs significantly from specimens of Protanago nonsector (see above) by having much less convex dorsal and ventral margins, with a H/L ratio of 0.55 vs 0.85 for the latter taxon (compare to Fig. 24A, C). Specimen MMNS VP-12073 is similar to Protoanguilla?, a species reported as Pseudophichthys glaber from middle Eocene to lower Oligocene deposits in Louisiana and Mississippi (Nolf & Stringer 2003; Nolf 2013; Stringer et al. 2020c). Unfortunately, the anterior onequarter of the otolith is lacking and definitive identification to Protoanguilla? is not possible without additional specimens. Schwarzhans et al. (2024) indicated that Pseudophichthys glaber differed from the extant Pseudophichthys and erected the otolith-based genus Protoanguilla? for the taxon.