Synonymisation of the skeleton-based Palimphemus anceps Kner, 1862 and the otolith-based Colliolus sculptus (Koken, 1891) (Pisces, Teleostei, Gadidae)

Slabs of two specimens from a borehole at Krywald, Upper Silesia, Poland, originally recorded as Gadus macropterygius (Kramberger, 1883) by Jerzmańska (1962) are restudied and re-identified as Palimphemus anceps Kner, 1862, a fossil gadid genus and species recently redescribed by Carnevale et al. (2012) from exceptionally well preserved fish specimens of similar age from St. Margarethen, Austria. One of the Krywald specimens contains an otolith in situ visible from the inner face and clearly identifiable as representing the otolith-based fossil genus and species Colliolus sculptus (Koken, 1891), one of the most wide-spread, common and stratigraphically long-ranging gadid otolith species. As a consequence, the otolith-based genera Colliolus and Gadichthys are placed in synonymy with Palimphemus and the otolith-based species C. sculptus with P. anceps thereby eradicating a case of more than 100 years of parallel taxonomy. The prospects are emphasised of further future such work of relating skeleton and otolith data.