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Redescription of the actinopterygian fish Westollia crassa (Pohlig, 1892) (Aeduellidae) from the Permian sediments of Thuringia and its relationships to other Aeduellidae

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A revision of the actinopterygian fish Westollia crassa (Pohlig in Altpermische Saurierfährten, Fische und Medusen der Gegend von Friedrichroda i. Thür. In: Festschrift zum 70. Geburstage Rudolf Leuckarts, Wilhelm Engelmann Verlag, pp. 59–64, 1892) from the Goldlauter Formation (Permian) of the Thuringian Forest is presented based on the material deposited in several museums and universities. This is the first comprehensive revision of the morphology and anatomy of the species, including determination of a neotype and presentation of a reconstruction. A number of anatomical features confirm the placement of the species in the family Aeduellidae. Some unique features such as the morphology of the trunk with large scales, the arrangement of the bones in the circumorbital region, the shape of the maxilla, the very broad parietal and, conversely, the small postparietal, the formation of the postorbital part of the skull, the shape of the bones of the opercular apparatus including the unique shape of the median gular, defining this species in relation to other members of the family Aeduellidae. The individual features of Westollia crassa are compared with other species of this family.

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Article was published in the Fossil Imprint (National Museum, Prague, (https://doi.org/10.37520/fl.2023.008). This paper is avilable.

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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank to Thomas Schindler (Büro für Paläontologie, Stratigraphie und Geotopschutz, Bayerfeld-Steckweiler) and Ralf Werneburg (Naturhistorisches Museum, Schleusingen) for the initial information about the Gottlob Quarry material stored in the collections in Germany. I am obliged to Tom Hübner (Naturhistorisches Museum, Gotha), Matthias Hartmann (Naturkundemuseum Erfurt) Frank Bach (Universität Leipzig), Maximillian Albrecht (Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle), Ralf Werneburg (Naturhistorisches Museum, Schleusingen) and Georg Heumann (Goldfuss-Museum, Bonn) for searching suitable specimens in the collections and for access to the material in their care. Martha Richter and Emma Bernard (Natural History Museum, London) kindly provide manuscript notes of A.S.Woodward and photos of the specimens of Westollia and Amblypterus arcuatus deposited in the collection of Natural History Museum, London. I am obliged to Jan Wagner (National Museum, Prague) for his significant help in solving of the nomenclatural status of the genera Lepidopterus and Westollia. I am grateful to Ilja Kogan (Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz) and anonymous reviewer, for their numerous invaluable comments improving this manuscript.

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    Stanislav Štamberg

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Štamberg, S. Redescription of the actinopterygian fish Westollia crassa (Pohlig, 1892) (Aeduellidae) from the Permian sediments of Thuringia and its relationships to other Aeduellidae. PalZ 98, 491–508 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-024-00696-8

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