Comments on the cranial and pectoral girdle osteology of Lepidotes gigas (Actinopterygii, Lepisosteiformes) from the Lower Jurassic (lower Toarcian) of Germany

A transfer-prepared specimen of Lepidotes (Actinopterygii, Lepisosteiformes) from the Posidonia Shale Formation of south Germany is tentatively identified specifically as L. gigas. The genus and its species are insufficiently defined and in need of revision. The new specimen reveals details of the cranial and pectoral girdle skeletal architecture and previously unknown osteological features of Lepidotes, such as a large foramen on the maxilla and the formation of two tooth-bearing clavicle elements (serrated appendages). Maxillary foramina are also known in the related contemporaneous lepisosteiform Mengius and possibly served for passage of nerve branches supplying either a maxillary pit-line or cutaneous sense organs (taste buds) in a thickened upper lip or barbels. The clavicle elements agree morphologically with those of the Recent Amia. Their function remains obscure.