Santanasalmo elegans gen. et sp. nov., a basal euteleostean fish from the Lower Cretaceous of the Araripe Basin, northeastern Brazil

The bituminous shales from the Pedra Branca mine have yielded certain taxa also found in the carbonate concretions of the Romualdo Member (Santana Formation) and in the plattenkalk of the Crato Formation in northeastern Brazil. Based on two specimens obtained from this locality, we describe a small and slender fish, Santanasalmo elegans gen. et sp. nov. It can be recognized by a combination of features: elongate head with prominent snout, reduced orbit, very long and arched antorbital, edentulous jaws, boomerang-shaped preopercle with right vertical arm, caudal endoskeleton with at least five hypurals, high position of the lateral line on the flank. According to a set of characters, the fish remains as a basal Euteleostei incertae sedis.