A fossil dreamer of the genusOneirodes(Lophiiformes: Ceratioidei) from the Miocene of Sakhalin Island, Russia

The almost complete skeleton of a fossil dreamer, identified asOneirodessp., is described from the middle-upper Miocene Kurasi Formation of southern Sakhalin Island, Russia. This is the second fossil skeletal record of oneirodid anglerfishes following those described from the Puente Formation of California, USA. The new specimen possesses morphological features very similar to those of the recent and fossil members of its genus, and cannot be separated from them at the species level. This finding confirms the idea of the high level of speciation of this fish family prior to the middle-late Miocene and demonstrates the wide geographic distribution of the genusOneirodesalready at this time.