A new genus and species of lophiid anglerfish (Teleostei: Lophiiformes) from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, Italy

†Sharfia mirabilis, a new genus and species of lophiid anglerfish from the Ypresian of Monte Bolca, northern Italy, is described from a single specimen residing among collections of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris. Together with †Lophius brachysomus Agassiz, known from three or four individuals also from Monte Bolca, †Sharfia mirabilis is the oldest member of the teleost family Lophiidae known to date, based on articulated skeletal remains. It possesses several autapomorphic features as well as a unique combination of character states that clearly separate it from all other known lophiiform fishes: opercle subtriangular, its posteroventral margin only slightly concave, its medial surface cancellous, lateral surface with close–set striations radiating from articular facet; subopercle entire, without posteroventral fimbriations; pectoral radials two; cleithral spine greatly reduced; neural and haemal spines expanded anteroposteriorly; interorbital narrow, postorbital portion of frontals expanded laterally; endopterygoid and ectopterygoid, a single, fused, subtriangular element; vertebrae 19; dorsal–fin rays nine, supported by seven pterygiophores; caudal–fin rays eight. Among extant lophiid genera, the new taxon shows perhaps the strongest phenetic resemblance to Sladenia Regan. Paleoecological and evolutionary implications are discussed.