The long-snouted bony fish ‘Protosphyraena’ stebbingi Woodward, 1909 from the Upper Cretaceous of northeastern Italy

In this paper we report for the first time remains of the long-snouted bony fish ‘Protosphyraena’ stebbingi Woodward, 1909 from the Upper Cretaceous of northeastern Italy. The material described herein consists of two rostra, one of which is nearly complete and the other only partially preserved, collected from Crespadoro (Monti Lessini) and Villa di Teolo (Colli Euganei), respectively. The overall morphology and internal structure of the rostrum of ‘P.’ stebbingi differ from those of the rostra characteristic of the genus Protosphyraena but exhibits a certain degree of similarity to those of some Cretaceous tselfatiiforms. Like in other long-snouted bony fishes, the rostrum of ‘P.’ stebbingi was probably used for prey capture and defense. The age of the Italian specimens is consistent with that of the English Chalk (Lower Chalk) where the type material of ‘Protosphyraena’ stebbingi was collected, especially the specimen from Colli Euganei, which comes from the upper Cenomanian Bonarelli Level. Taphonomic features of the specimens are also discussed, especially those of the rostrum from Crespadoro, which exhibits encrusting calcareous tubes, probably pertaining to deep-sea serpulids.