Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:11:38.541Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The neurocranium of the Lower Carboniferous shark Tristychius arcuatus (Agassiz, 1837)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2018

Michael I. Coates  and
Kristen Tietjen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Tristychius arcuatus, from the late Viséan of Scotland, is known from numerous ironstone nodule-encased specimens. These are reinvestigated using computerised tomography (CT) scanning and 3-D digital reconstruction methods. CT scans of the neurocranium (braincase) corroborate many features of the existing reconstruction, but also reveal new details of the gross proportions, the external morphology and, for the first time, features of the internal morphology, including the otic skeletal labyrinth. The unusual position of the articulation for the palatoquadrate on the ventral surface of the postorbital process is confirmed, but the area for the hyoid articulation is relocated posteriorly and the configuration of nerve foramina within the orbit is changed. A preliminary phylogenetic hypothesis is offered, suggesting a place for Tristychius within a sequence of early branching events in the elasmobranch lineage. In this, Tristychius is not resolved as a hybodontid, but is instead a stem elasmobranch possibly related to genera such as Acronemus, and exemplifying anatomical conditions close to the base of the Euselachii. As such, the neurocranium of Tristychius offers important insight into a defining feature of these early members of the anatomically advanced elasmobranchs: the origin of specialised phonoreception.

Keywords

ChondrichthyesElasmobranchiihearingPalaeozoicphylogeny
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 108 , Issue 1: A Legacy in Fossils: a Tribute to Stan Wood , March 2017 , pp. 19 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

6. References

Agassiz, L. 1837 Recherches sur les poissons fossils Vol. 3. Neuchatel, Switzerland: Petitpierre.Google Scholar
Bass, A. H. & Chagnaud, B. P. 2012. Shared developmental and evolutionary origins for neural basis of vocal-acoustic and pectoral-gestural signaling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 109, 10677–84.Google Scholar
Clarkson, E. N. K. 1986. Granton and Wardie shore. In McAdam, A. D. & Clarkson, E. N. K. (eds) Lothian Geology: an excursion guide, 76–80. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. 221 pp.Google Scholar
Coates, M. I. , Gess, R. W., Flynn, J. A., Criswell, K. E. & Tietjen, K. 2017. A symmoriiform chondrichthyan braincase and the origin of chimaeroid fishes. Nature 541, 208–211.Google Scholar
Coates, M. I. & Gess, R. W. 2007. A new reconstruction of Onychoselache traquairi, comments on early chondrichthyan pectoral girdles and hybodontiform phylogeny. Palaeontology 50, 1421–1446.Google Scholar
Coates, M. I. & Sequeira, S. E. K. 1998. The braincase of a primitive shark. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 89, 63–85.Google Scholar
Daniel, J. F. 1922. The Elasmobranch Fishes. Berkeley: University of California Press. 332 pp.Google Scholar
Davis, S. P., Finarelli, J. A. & Coates, M. I. 2012. Acanthodes reveals shark-like conditions in last common ancestor of modern jawed vertebrates. Nature 486, 247–250.Google Scholar
de Beer, G. R. 1937. The Development of the Vertebrate Skull. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. xxiii+552 pp.Google Scholar
Dick, J. R. F. 1978. On the Carboniferous shark Tristychius arcuatus Agassiz from Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 70, 63–109.Google Scholar
Dick, J. R. F. 1981. Diplodoselache woodi gen. et sp. nov., and early Carboniferous shark from the Midland Valley of Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 72, 99–113.Google Scholar
Dick, J. R. F. 1998. Sphenacanthus, a Palaeozoic freshwater shark. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 122, 9–25.Google Scholar
Dick, J. R. F. & Maisey, J. G. 1980. The Scottish Lower Carboniferous shark Onychoselache traquairi. Palaeontology 23, 363–374.Google Scholar
Dineley, D. L. & Metcalf, S. J. 1999. Fossil fishes of Great Britain. Geological Conservation Review Series 16. Peterborough: Joint Nature Conservation Committee. 675 pp.Google Scholar
Dupret, V., Sanchez, S., Goujet, D., Tafforeau, P. & Ahlberg, P. 2014. A primitive placoderm sheds light on the origin of the jawed vertebrate face. Nature 507, 500–503.Google Scholar
Evangelista, C., Mills, M., Siebeck, U. E. & Collin, S. P. 2010. A comparison of the external morphology of the membranous inner ear in elasmobranchs. Journal of Morphology 271, 483–495.Google Scholar
Gans, C. & Parsons, T. S. 1964. A Photographic Atlas of Shark Anatomy: The Gross Morphology of Squalus Acanthias. New York: Academic Press. 112 pp.Google Scholar
Gardiner, B. G. 1984. The relationships of the palaeoniscid fishes, a review based on new specimens of Mimia and Moythomasia from the Upper Devonian of Western Australia. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology 37, 173–428.Google Scholar
Ginter, M., Hampe, O. & Duffin, C. 2010. Chondrichthyes 3D, Paleozoic Elasmobranchii: Teeth. In Schultze, H.-P. (ed.) Handbook of Paleoichthyology. Munchen: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil. 512 pp.Google Scholar
Hay, O. P. 1902. Bibliography and catalogue of the fossil vertebrates of North America. Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey 179, 1–868.Google Scholar
Huxley, T. H. 1880. A manual of the vertebrated animals. New York: D. Appleton. viii+698 pp.Google Scholar
Janvier, P. 1996. Early Vertebrates. Oxford Monographs on Geology and Geophysics 33. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 408 pp.Google Scholar
Lane, J. A. 2010. Morphology of the braincase in the Cretaceous hybodont shark Tribodus linnae (Chondrichthyes: Elasmobranchii), based on CT scanning. American Museum Novitates 2758, 1–70.Google Scholar
Lisney, T. J. 2010. A review of the sensory biology of chimaeroid fishes (Chondrichthyes: Holocephali). Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 20, 571–590.Google Scholar
Long, J. A., Mark-Kurik, E., Johanson, Z., Lee, M. S. Y., Young, G. C., Min, Z., Ahlberg, P. E., Newman, M., Jones, R., den Blaauwen, J., Choo, B. & Trinjastic, K. 2015. Copulation in antiarch placoderms and the origin of gnathostome fertilization. Nature 517, 197–199.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 1983. Cranial anatomy of Hybodus basanus Egerton from the Lower Cretaceous of England. American Museum Novitates 2758, 1–64.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 1985. Cranial anatomy of the fossil elasmobranch Synechodus dubrisiensis. American Museum Novitates 2857, 1–16.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 1987. Cranial anatomy of the Lower Jurassic shark Hybodus reticulatus (Chondrichthyes; Elasmobranchii), with comments on hybodontid systematics. American Museum Novitates 2878, 1–39.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 1989. Hamiltonichthys mapesi g. & sp. nov. (Chondrichthyes; Elasmobranchii), from the Upper Pennsylvanian of Kansas. American Museum Novitates 2931, 1–42.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 2001a. A primitive chondrichthyan braincase from the Middle Devonian of Bolivia. In Ahlberg, P. E. (ed.) Major Events in Early Vertebrate Evolution, 263–288. London: Taylor and Francis. xiv+418 pp.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 2001b. Remarks on the inner ear of elasmobranchs and its interpretation from skeletal labyrinth morphology. Journal of Morphology 250, 236–264.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 2004. Endocranial morphology in fossil and recent chondrichthyans. In Arratia, G., Wilson, M. V. H. & Cloutier, R. (eds) Recent Advances in the Origin and Early Radiation of Vertebrates, 139–170. Munchen: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfiel. 703 pp.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 2005. Braincase of the Upper Devonian shark Cladodoides wildungensis (Chondrichthyes, Elasmobranchii), with observations on the braincase in early chondrichthyans. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 288, 1–103.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 2007. The braincase in Paleozoic symmoriiform and cladoselachian sharks. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 307, 1–122.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 2008. The postorbital palatoquadrate articulation in elasmobranchs. Journal of Morphology 269, 1022–1040.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G. 2011. The braincase of the Middle Triassic shark Acronemus tuberculatus (Bassani, 1886). Palaeontology 54, 417–428.Google Scholar
Maisey, J. G., Naylor, G. J. P. & Ward, D. J. 2004. Mesozoic elasmobranchs, neoselachian phylogeny and the rise of modern elasmobranch diversity. In Arratia, G. & Tintori, A. (eds) Mesozoic Fishes 3 – Systematics, Paleoenvironments and Biodiversity, 17–56. München: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfiel. 649 pp.Google Scholar
Marinelli, W. & Strenger, A. 1959. Vergleichende Anatomie und Morphologie der Wirbeltiere. III. 174–308. Wien: Franz Deuticke.Google Scholar
Mitchell, G. H. & Mykura, W. 1962. The Geology of the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh (3rd edn). Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. Edinburgh: HMSO. 405 pp.Google Scholar
Moy-Thomas, J. A. 1936. On the structure and affinities of the fossil elasmobranch fishes from the Lower Carboniferous rocks of Glencartholm, Eskdale. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1936, 761–788.Google Scholar
Mutter, R. J., de Blanger, K., & Neuman, A. G. 2007. Elasmobranchs from the Lower Triassic Sulphur Mountain Formation near Wapiti Lake (BC, Canada). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 149, 309–337.Google Scholar
Mutter, R. J., Neuman, A. G. & de Blanger, K. 2008. Homalodontus nom. nov. a replacement for Wapitiodus Mutter, de Blanger and Neuman 2007 (Homalodontidae nom. nov., ?Hybodontoidea), preoccupied by Wapitiodus Orchard, 2005. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 154, 419–420.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., Gunn, W., Clough, C. T., Hinxman, L. W., Grant Wilson, J. S., Crampton, C. B., Maufe, H. B. & Bailey, E. B. 1910. The Geology of the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh (2nd edn). Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Scotland. HMSO: Edinburgh, 405 pp.Google Scholar
Pradel, A. 2010. Skull and brain anatomy of Late Carboniferous Sibyrhinchidae (Chondrichthyes, Iniopterygia) from Kansas and Oklahoma (USA). Geodiversitas 32, 595–661.Google Scholar
Pradel, A., Tafforeau, P., Maisey, J. G. & Janvier, P. 2011. A new Paleozoic Symmoriiformes (Chondrichthyes) from the Late Carboniferous of Kansas (USA) and Cladistic Analysis of Early Chondrichthyans. PLoS ONE 6: e24938 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024938.Google Scholar
Pradel, A., Maisey, J. G., Tafforeau, P., Mapes, R. H. & Mallatt, J. 2014. A Palaeozoic shark with osteichthyan-like branchial arches. Nature 509, 608–611.Google Scholar
Rieppel, O. 1982. A new genus of shark from the Middle Triassic of Monte San Giorgio, Switzerland. Palaeontology 25, 399–412.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, B. 1981. The xenacanth shark neurocranium, with comments on elasmobranch monophyly. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 169, 1–66.Google Scholar
Schaumberg, G. 1977. Der Richelsdorfer Kupferschiefer und seine Fossilien III. Die tierischen Fossilien des Kupferschieffers, 2. Vertebraten. Aufschluss 28, 297–351.Google Scholar
Schaumberg, G. 1982. Hopleacanthus richelsdorfi n. g. n. sp., ein Euselachier aus dem permischen Kupferschiefer von Hessen (W-Deutschland). Paläontologisches Zeitschrift 56, 235–257.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. A. & Anderson, L. I. 2015. Additional Information on Charles W. Peach (1800–1886). The Geological Curator 10, 159–180.Google Scholar
Thomson, K. S. 1982. An Early Triassic Hybodont Shark from Northern Madagascar. Postilla 186, 1–16.Google Scholar
Traquair, R. H. 1903. On the distribution of fossil fish remains in the Carboniferous rocks of the Edinburgh district. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 40, 687–707.Google Scholar
Waterston, 1962. Excursion D – Wardie and Granton shore. In Mitchel, G. H., Walton, K. & Grant, D. (eds) Edinburgh Geology: An Excursion Guide, 20–22. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. xv+222 pp.Google Scholar
Wood, S. P. 1975. Recent discoveries of Carboniferous fishes in Edinburgh. Scottish Journal of Geology 11, 251–258.Google Scholar
Young, J. Z. 1981. The life of vertebrates. 3rd Ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 645 pp.Google Scholar
Zangerl, R. 1981. Chondrichthyes I: Paleozoic Elasmobranchii. In Schultze, H.-P. (ed.) Handbook of Paleoichthyology. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag. 115 pp.Google Scholar