A NEW GENUS OF FOSSIL PUFFERFISH (TETRAODONTIDAE, TETRAODONTIFORMES) BASED ON A NEW SPECIES FROM THE OLIGOCENE OF RUSSIA AND A REFERRED SPECIES FROM THE MIOCENE OF UKRAINE

A new genus of tetraodontid pufferfish, Archaeotetraodon, is proposed for two fossil species with uniquely specialized bifurcate scale spinu les: winterbottomi, a new species based on ten specimens from the Olig ocene of Russia in which nearly all of the spinules are bifurcate; and jamestyleri Bannikov (1990), based on two complete specimens and a fr agment from the Miocene of Ukraine in which only two scales in the mid dle of the body have bifurcate upright spinules. An especially long ra yless pterygiophore extending forward from the dorsal-fin origin in Ar chaeotetraodon (in winterbottomi; condition unknown in jamestyleri) is similar to that found in the Recent Lagocephalus but this feature can not be unequivocally polarized and may not indicate relationship betwe en these two genera.