First record of fossil Merlangius (Pisces, Gadiformes) from arctic Alaska and chronostratigraphic implications

An otolith of a new species of Merlangius Geoffroy St. Hillaire, 1767, Merlangius arcticus, collected from the Nuwok Member of the Sagavanirktok Formation of northeastern Alaska, is the first occurrence of this genus as a fossil in the Arctic Ocean. The age range of this well-known genus, early Miocene to Recent, is consistent with an inferred late Neogene age for the Nuwok strata based on molluscs, ostracods and palynomorphs.