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Gnathostome microremains from the Lower Devonian Jawf Formation, Saudi Arabia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Carole J. Burrow
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Entomology, School of Integrative Biology, University of Queensland 4072, Australia,
Hervé Lelièvre
Affiliation:
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Département Histoire de la Terre, 8 rue Buffon, 75231 Paris, case postale 38, France
Dominique Janjou
Affiliation:
Bureau des Ressources Géologiques et Minières, 3 avenue Claude-Guillemin, 45060 Orléans Cedex 2, France

Abstract

Calcareous horizons in the Qasr and Hammamiyat members (Lower Devonian, ?Pragian and lower Emsian) of the Jawf Formation, northwestern Saudi Arabia, yielded a rich assemblage of microremains from acanthodian, placoderm, chondrichthyan, and sarcopterygian vertebrates. The most abundant elements are scales from acanthodians Nostolepis spp., Milesacanthus ancestralis n. sp., Canadalepis? sp., and Gomphonchus? fromensis, scales and dermal bone fragments from acanthothoracid and ?rhenanid placoderms, and teeth from onychodontids. Rarer occurrences include ?chondrichthyan scales of several different morphotypes, and petalichthid and ?ptyctodontid placoderm elements. The Qasr Member assemblage shows a close resemblance to slightly older faunas from the Lochkovian of Brittany and Spain. The Hammamiyat Member microvertebrate fauna shows closest affinity with that of the stratigraphically lower Qasr Member, with similarities also to coeval faunas from southeastern Australia, late Emsian/Eifelian faunas from west-central Europe, and the Givetian Aztec Siltstone fauna from Antarctica.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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