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A microvertebrate fauna from the Llandovery of South China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

I. J. Sansom ,
R. J. Aldridge  and
M. M. Smith
I. J. Sansom
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
R. J. Aldridge
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester, LEI 7RH, UK
M. M. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Craniofacial Development, Floor 27, Guy's Tower, London Bridge, SE1 9RT, UK
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Abstract

The late Llandovery (early Silurian) of South China has yielded a locally abundant and diverse microvertebrate fauna. This includes scales of the little-known mongolepids, sinacanthid spines and a whole host of as yet unassigned forms. The material recovered provides a considerable amount of new information about the diversity of fish in the South Yangtze biome during the early Silurian, and suggests that ichthyoliths have a future role to play in Lower Palaeozoic stratigraphic correlation across China and into Mongolia and Siberia. A new family of mongolepids, the Shiqianolepidae, is erected, accommodating the new genus Shiqianolepis with the type species S. hollandi. The description of Shiqianolepis enables the identification of a differentiated squamation in mongolepid fish, a feature which has not previously been recognised. Two further taxa, Rongolepis cosmetica gen. et sp. nov. and Chenolepis asketa gen. et sp. nov., of, as yet, uncertain affinities are also erected.

Keywords

dentinegnathostome originsmicrovertebratesSilurian fishvertebrate hard tissue histology
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 90 , Issue 3 , 1999 , pp. 255 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1999

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