PROC. BIOL. SOC. WASH. 94(1), 1981, pp. 37-42 BERNARDICHTHYS ZORRAQUINOSI, A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES OF SALMONIFORM FISH FROM THE LATE CRETACEOUS OF OREGON Richard W. Huddleston Abstract. — Field samples from the Bernard Formation (lower Cenoma-nian) of Oregon contained a single well-preserved teleost otolith that rep-resents a new genus and species, Bernardichthys zorraquinosi (Salmoni-formes: Bernardichthyidae). A Kevex analysis of the otolith's composition revealed the presence of calcium, silica, aluminum, iron, potassium, and magnesium. This is in contrast to the composition of Pliocene otoliths from the Purissima formation which consisted only of calcium, probably in the form of aragonite. This specimen constitutes the third reported occurrence of Cenomanian age otoliths and the earliest reported occurrence of an otolith in North America. Samples collected by Bruce Welton from the basal Bernard formation, Oregon, yielded a single well-preserved teleost otolith. The Bernard for-mation, established by Dickinson and Virgrass (1965), lies unconformably on Paleozoic, Triassic, and Jurassic strata and is overlain unconformably by Tertiary volcanics. The formation is approximately 1500 feet (460 m) thick and consists of a pebbly sandstone to conglomerate with minor amounts of clayey sandstones and mudstones. From invertebrate data it is considered lower Cenomanian (lower-most upper Cretaceous age) by Dickinson and Vigrass (1965). Although Koken (1891) first described Cretaceous otoliths from Europe, their occurrence in North America was not mentioned until some 64 years later when Tychsen and Vorhis (1955) reported, but did not describe, oto-liths from the Fox Hills Sandstone (Maastrichtian age) of South Dakota. The first description of taxa based on Cretaceous age otoliths from North America followed ten years later when Frizzell (1965a, 1965b) described new genera and species of the families Albulidae and Vorhisiidae, the latter subsequently found to be a junior synonym of the family Ariidae (J. E. Fitch, personal communication). Discussions pertaining to Cenomanian age otoliths are restricted to reports concerning a single otolith and an otolith impression (Gowda, 1967a, 1967b; Stinton, 1973). The otolith terminology follows that of Frizzell and Dante (1965); see Fig. 1. Additional terms used but not shown in Fig. 1 are: ventral furrow, a narrow depression below the sulcus parallel to the ventral margin; excisura,
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