PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 114(3):579-588. 200L A new species of the luvarid fish genus "fAvitoluvarus (Acanthuroidei: Perciformes) from the Eocene of the Caucasus in southwest Russia Alexandre F. Bannikov and James C. Tyler (AFB) Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya 123, Moscow 117647, Russia; (JCT) National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560-0106, U.S.A. Abstract. — A new species of the luvarid fish genus '\Avitoluvarus, A. eocaen-icus, is described from the middle Eocene of Russia (Kuma Horizon, North Caucasus) based on a single imprint of its skeleton (incomplete posteriorly). Avitoluvarus previously has been known only from the terminal (uppermost) Paleocene of Turkmenistan, where it is represented by two species, A. dianae and A. mariannae. The fossil luvarid genus Avitoluvarus was described recently (Bannikov & Tyler 1995) from the Danata Formation in Turk-menistan, where it is represented by two species, A. dianae Bannikov & Tyler, 1995, and A. mariannae Bannikov & Tyler, 1995. The exact age of the fish-bearing layer of the Danata Formation in Turkmenistan has been questioned, with the fishes from this layer dated as both Late Paleocene (Danil-chenko 1968, Bannikov 1985) and Early Eocene (Tyler & Bannikov 1992b, Patter-son 1993, Bannikov & Tyler 1995). We ac-cept here the analysis of Muzylev (1994) indicating that the fish-bearing layer of the Danata Formation is synchronous with the Upper Thanetian sapropel of more western regions, corresponding to global Late Pa-leocene anoxic events. In 1999, excavations in the North Cau-casus by the first listed author yielded the imprint of a skeleton (incomplete posteri-orly) that represents a new species of Avi-toluvarus. This specimen was found in the bituminous marls of the Kuma Horizon in the Gorny Luch locality (Pshekha River, Apsheronsk District, about 0.5 km from the Gorny Luch farmstead). The Kuma Horizon correlates with the Bartonian stage. The Kuma Horizon previously has been as-signed to the Upper Eocene (Tyler & Ban-nikov 1992a, Bannikov 1993) but according to Cavelier & Pomerol (1986) only the Pria-bonian (but not the Bartonian) should be included in the Upper Eocene, and thus the Kuma Horizon fishes are of late Middle Eo-cene age. A preliminary, and far from complete, list of Kuma fishes (Bannikov & Parin 1997) includes at least 27 species repre-senting 25 families in 10 orders. Based on the recent excavations in 1999, this list can be extended by a number of taxa repre-senting their first discoveries at the generic and familial levels at the Gorny Luch lo-cality; e.g., a champsodontid, anAntigonia-like caproid, a Seriola-like carangid, a Sar-da-like scombrid, a percoid fish probably belonging to a new genus of uncertain fam-ily, and the new species of luvarid de-scribed below. The great majority of the tel-eost species from the Gorny Luch assem-blage are oceanic pelagic (epi-and meso-) and the new species of Avitoluvarus de-scribed below is presumably epipelagic like the only Recent representative of the fam-ily, Luvarus imperialis Rafinesque, 1810. The new species represents the first re-cord of the genus Avitoluvarus outside of Turkmenistan and extends the stratigraphic
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