Fig. 1

Middle Miocene, Serravallian Atherina otoliths from the Mediterranean and the Paratethys. a–d Atherina suchovi Switchenska, 1973, early Sarmatian of Naslavcea, Moldavia. All otoliths are sagittal otoliths and shown from inner face, if not mentioned otherwise. a1 Fish specimen 1 (GMUH VP-9505) with otolith in situ (reversed); a2 close-up view of otolith of the same specimen (reversed). b Close-up view of fish specimen 2 (GMUH VP-9506) with both sagittal otoliths in situ, upper one shown from the outer face (reversed). c. Close-up view of fish specimen 3 (GMUH VP-9507) showing fractured sagittal otolith and small, triangular lapillus otolith (upper left), both in situ. d Extracted otolith from fish specimen 4 (GMUH VP-9508), fractured during recovery process (reversed). e–f Atherina austriaca Schubert, 1906, late Serravallian of Seyithasan, Karaman Basin, Turkey, coll. Schwarzhans (reversed). e2 Ventral view of same otolith as e1. g–h Atherina gidjakensis (Pobedina, 1956), Konkian, Karagaily, Mangyshlak, Kazakhstan, NMNH 2532/031 and/034 (reversed; refigured from Bratishko et al. 2015). h2 Ventral view of same otolith as h1