Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T21:28:32.369Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Acanthorhachis, a new genus of shark from the Carboniferous (Westphalian) of Yorkshire, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2013

DAVID M. MARTILL*
Affiliation:
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3QL, UK
PETER J. A. DEL STROTHER
Affiliation:
PJDS Consulting Ltd., Clitheroe BB12 7JA, UK
FLORENCE GALLIEN
Affiliation:
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3QL, UK
*
Author for correspondence: david.martill@port.ac.uk

Abstract

An association of diverse hollow spines and dermal denticles (ichthyoliths) from the Carboniferous (Westphalian) of Todmorden, Yorkshire, England are attributed to a new genus of enigmatic shark that may lie close to Listracanthus Newberry & Worthen, 1870. Scanning electron microscopy shows that denticle morphology is highly variable, but forms a morphocline including elongate multi-spined elements as well as robust dome-like stellate denticles and recurved spinose elements. Histological analysis suggests an absence of enameloid. Continuous variation of form between elongate multi-cusped spines to boss-like circular denticles shows that all previously described Palaeozoic species of Listracanthus are probably junior synonyms of the type species L. hystrix Newberry & Worthen, 1870. The status of Listracanthus as a surviving ‘Lilliputian’ taxon after the Permian extinction is questioned. Although the new specimen has affinities with Listracanthus, significant differences in the form of the posterior spines on elongate denticles warrants its placement in the new genus Acanthorhachis gen. nov. The family Listracanthidae is erected to accommodate Listracanthus and Acanthorhachis.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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

Aitken, J. 1868. Excursion of the Manchester Geological Society to Bacup and Todmorden. Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society 6, 2236.Google Scholar
Aitkenhead, N., Barclay, W. J., Brandon, A., Chadwick, R. A., Chisholm, J. I., Cooper, A. H. & Johnson, E. W. 2002. British Regional Geology: The Pennines and Adjacent Areas (Fourth edition). British Geological Survey, Nottingham, 206 pp.Google Scholar
Bolton, H. 1889. Fish remains from the Lower Coal Measures. Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society 20, 215–26.Google Scholar
Bolton, H. 1896. On the occurrence of the genus Listracanthus in the English Coal Measures. Geological Magazine 4, 424–6.Google Scholar
Bonaparte, C. L. 1838. Systema Ichthyologicum. Memoires de la Société Neuchateloise des Sciences Naturelles 2, 195214.Google Scholar
Briant, K. 1962. Passionate Paradox: The Life of Marie Stopes. W.W. Norton & Co., New York.Google Scholar
Brown, B. R. 2010. Temperature response in electrosensors and thermal voltages in electrolytes. Journal of Biological Physics 36, 121–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, T. 1841. Description of some new species of fossil shells, found chiefly in the Vale of Todmorden, Yorkshire. Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society 1, 212–29.Google Scholar
Chorn, J. & Reavis, E. A. 1978. Affinities of the chondrichthyan organ-genera Listracanthus and Petrodus . The University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions 89, 49.Google Scholar
Davydov, V., Wardlaw, B. R. & Gradstein, F. M. 2004. The Carboniferous period. In A Geologic Time Scale 2004 (eds Gradstein, F., Ogg, J. & Smith, A.), pp. 222–48. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Derycke, C., Cloutier, R. & Candilier, A.-M. 1995. Palaeozoic vertebrates of northern France and Belgium: part II – Chondrichthyes, Acanthodii, Actinopterygii (uppermost Silurian to Carboniferous). Geobios 19, 343–50.Google Scholar
Dugdale, C. 1887. General section of the Lower Coal Measures and Millstone Grit rocks in the Fores of Rossendale, with remarks on some of the fossiliferous beds contained therin. Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society 19, 229–33.Google Scholar
Edwards, W. & Stubblefield, C. J. 1948. Marine Bands and other marker horizons in relation to the sedimentary cycles of the middle coal measures of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 412, 209–60.Google Scholar
Elliot, D. K., Irmis, R. B., Hansen, M. C. & Olson, T. J. 2004. Chondrichthyans from the Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) Naco Formation of Central Arizona. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24, 268–80.Google Scholar
Gardiner, J. M. & Atema, J. 2007. Sharks need the lateral line to locate odor sources: rheotaxis and eddy chemotaxis. Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 1925–34.Google Scholar
Gradstein, F., Ogg, J. & Smith, A. (eds) 2004. A Geologic Time Scale 2004. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hamm, S. A. & Cicimurri, D. J. 2005. Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) chondrichthyans from the Lake Neosho Shale Member of the Altamont Limestone in Montgomery County, Kansas. Paludicola 5 (2), 6576.Google Scholar
Hibbard, C. W. 1938. A new fish Listracanthus eliasi, from the Pennsylvanian of Nodaway County, Missouri. The University of Kansas Science Bulletin 25, 169–71.Google Scholar
Huxley, T. H. 1880. On the application of the laws of evolution to the arrangement of the Vertebrata and more particularly of the Mammalia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1880, 649–62.Google Scholar
Ivanov, A. 2005. Early Permian chondrichthyans of the middle and south Urals. Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia 8, 127–38.Google Scholar
Könen, A. von 1879. Die Kulm−Fauna von Herborn. Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie 1879, 309–46.Google Scholar
Koninck, L. G. de 1878. Faune du Calcaire Carbonifère de la Belgique I. Annales du Museum Royale d'Histoire Naturelle Belgique 2, 1152.Google Scholar
Lang, V. 1979. The discovery of spines of the genus Listracanthus (Chondrichthyes) in shales of the Moravian Culm. Bulletin of the Geological Survey, Prague 54, 301–3.Google Scholar
Lu, L., Fang, X., JI, S. & Pang, Q. 2002. A contribution to the knowledge of the Namurian in Ningxia. Acta Geoscientia Sinica 23 (2), 165–68 (in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Lu, L., Zhang, Z. & Fang, X. 2005. Notes on the discovery of Listracanthus and Petrodus (Chondrichthyes) from Upper Carboniferous of Ningxia, China. Geological Bulletin of China 6, 499500.Google Scholar
Martill, D. M. 1997. Fish oblique to bedding in early diagenetic concretions from the Cretaceous Santana Formation of Brazil: implications for sediment consistency. Palaeontology 40, 1011–26.Google Scholar
Murray, R. W. 1960. Electrical sensitivity of the ampullae of Lorenzini. Nature 187, 957.Google Scholar
Mutter, R. J. & Neuman, A. G. 2006. An enigmatic chondrichthyan with Paleozoic affinities from the Lower Triassic of Western Canada. Acta Geologica Polonica 51, 271–82.Google Scholar
Mutter, R. J. & Neuman, A. G. 2009. Recovery from the end-Permian extinction event: evidence from “Lilliput Listracanthus. Palaeogeography, Palaeocimatology, Palaeoecology 284, 22–8.Google Scholar
Newberry, J. S. 1873. Descriptions of fossil fishes. Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio 1 (2), 245355.Google Scholar
Newberry, J. S. 1875. Descriptions of fossil fishes. Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio 2 (2), 164.Google Scholar
Newberry, J. S. & Worthen, A. H. 1870. Part II – Paleontology of Illinois – Section I – Description of fossil vertebrates. In Geology and Paleontology (ed. Worthen, A. H.) 6, 345–74. Authority of the Legislature of Illinois, Chicago.Google Scholar
Patterson, C. 1965. The phylogeny of the chimaeroids. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London (B) 249, 101219.Google Scholar
Raschi, W. & Tabit, C. 1992. Functional aspects of placoid scales: a review and update. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 43, 123–47.Google Scholar
Schmidt, W. 1950. Uber Listracanthus woltersi n. sp. und einen anderen neuen fishrest aus dem tiefsten Westfal B von Prosper II bei Bottrop/Westfalen. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gessellschaft 101, 4458.Google Scholar
Schultze, H.-P., Stewart, J. D., Neuner, A. M. & Coldiron, R. W. 1982. Type and Figured Specimens of Fossil Vertebrates in the Collection of the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History. Part I. Fossil Fishes. University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Miscellaneous Publication 73, 153.Google Scholar
Southall, E. J. & Sims, D. W. 2003. Shark skin: a function in feeding. Biology Letters, Proceedings of the Royal Society, London 270, 47–9.Google Scholar
Štamberg, S. & Lang, V. 1979. Spines of the genus Listracanthus (Chondrichthyes) in shales of the Moravian Culm. Věstník Ústředního ústavu geologického 54, 301–4.Google Scholar
Stobbs, J. T. 1905. The marine bands in the Coal Measures of north Staffordshire. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London 61, 495527.Google Scholar
Stopes, M. C. & Watson, D. M. S. 1908. On the present distribution and origin of the calcareous concretions known as ‘coal balls’. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 200, 167–88.Google Scholar
Sweetman, S. C. & Underwood, C. J. 2006. A neoselachian shark from the non-marine Wessex Formation (Wealden Group: Early Cretaceous, Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Palaeontology 49, 457–65.Google Scholar
Turner, S. 1993. Early Carboniferous microvertebrates from the Narrien Range, central Queensland. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 15, 289304.Google Scholar
Waters, C. N., Browne, M. A. E., Dean, M. T. & Powell, J. H. 2007. Lithostratigraphical framework for carboniferous successions of Great Britain (Onshore). Research Report RR/07/01, British Geological Survey, Nottingham.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. S. 1891. Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History), Part 1. British Museum (Natural History), London, xlvii + 474 pp.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. S. 1903. On the Carboniferous ichthyodurolite Listracanthus . Geological Magazine 10, 486–8.Google Scholar
Wright, W. B., Sherlock, R. L., Wray, D. A., Lloyd, W. & Tonks, L. H. 1927. The Geology of the Rossendale Anticline. Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Explanation of sheet 76 (Rochdale). HMSO, London, 182 pp.Google Scholar