A large galaxiid fossil (Teleostei) from the Miocene of Central Otago, New Zealand

Abstract

A fish fossil of Miocene age from the Manuherikia group, from a site near Bannockburn in Central Otago, New Zealand, is described and identified as a galaxiid, probably genus Galaxias. The fish was large, estimated at 383 mm, and thus larger than all extant New Zealand Galaxias except G. argenteus, which is known to reach 580 mm. However, it appears to have been of quite slender form. There was, therefore, in Miocene times, a large, slender, perhaps lacustrine Galaxias in Palaeo‐lake Manuherikia in Central Otago.