Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-fwgfc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T15:57:29.189Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new large lamniform shark from the uppermost Gearle Siltstone (Cenomanian, Late Cretaceous) of Western Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Mikael Siverson
Mikael Siverson
Affiliation:
Lund University, Department of Geology, Division of Historical Geology and Palaeontology, Solvegatan 13, S-223 62 Lund, Sweden
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An association of 100 teeth and 15 vertebrae from a large, lamniform shark, is described from the uppermost part of the Gearle Siltstone in the Giralia Anticline, Southern Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. The material represents a new genus and species: Cardabiodon ricki. The taxon is referred to the new family Cardabiodontidae on the basis of its dental formula and uniquely oversized lower lateroposterior teeth. Other characteristic features include a strong dignathic heterodonty and the presence of four anterior and approximately 14 lateroposterior toothfiles in both the upper and lower jaw. The size of the recovered vertebral centra indicates that the shark measured at least 5 m in total length. The species had a wide but possibly patchy distribution with additional occurrences in England and Kazakstan, where it is present in strata of Cenomanian age. Cardabiodon shares several key dental characters with Parotodus, known from Oligocene–Pliocene deposits. The latter taxon was previously grouped with the ‘mega-toothed’ sharks of the genera Otodus and Carcharocles, but is here reassigned to the Cardabiodontidae.

The nominal species Cretalamna woodwardi from the middle or late Cenomanian of southern England, is designated as the type species of the new genus Dwardius. The coeval nominal species Pseudoisurus tomosus from the Saratov region in Russia, is based on material that almost certainly includes C. ricki and/or D. woodwardi. Designation of a lectotype for P. tomosus and its proper documentation would probably allow either C. ricki or D. woodwardi to be synonomised with the older name P. tomosus. There is, however, a strong possibility that the syntypes of P. tomosus are lost. Until they are found, redescribed and compared carefully with the type material of C. ricki and D. woodwardi, P. tomosus is a name of doubtful application and therefore referred to as a women dubium

Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 90 , Issue 1 , 1999 , pp. 49 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1999

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

Agassiz, L. J. R. 1833-1844. Recherches sur les poissons fossiles. Neuchâtel 3, 390+ 32 pp.Google Scholar
Applegate, S. P. 1965. Tooth terminology and variation in sharks with special reference to the sand shark, Carcharias taurus Rafinesque. Los Angeles County Museum Contributions in Science 86, 1–18.Google Scholar
Applegate, S. P. & Espinosa-Arrubarrena, L. 1996. The fossil history of Carcharodon and its possible ancestor, Cretolamna: A study in tooth identification. In Klimley, A. P. & Ainley, D. G. (eds) Great white sharks, the biology of Carcharodon carcharias, 19–36. San Diego: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arambourg, C. 1952. Les vertebres fossiles des gisements de phosphates (Maroc, Algerie, Tunisie). Service Geologie Maroc, Notes et Memoires 92, 1–372.Google Scholar
Bass, A. J., D'Aubrey, J. D. & Kistnasamy, N. 1975. Sharks of the east coast of southern Africa. IV. The families Odontaspididae, Scapanorhynchidae, Isuridae, Cetorhinidae, Alopiidae, Orectolobidae and Rhiniodontidae. South African Association for Marine Biological Research. Oceanographic Research Institute. Investigational Report 39, 1–102.Google Scholar
Bassani, F. 1895. Avanzi di Carcharodon auriculatus scoperti nel Calcare eocenico di Valle Gallina presso Avesa (provincia di Verona). Atti Memorie Dell'Accademia di Agricoltura, Scienze e Lettere, Verona 71, 1–13.Google Scholar
Berg, L. S. 1958. System der rezenten und fossilen Fischartigen und Fische. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag Wissenschaft.Google Scholar
Cappetta, H. 1980a. Les selaciens du Cretace superieur du Liban. 1: Requins. Palaeontographica, Abteilung A 168, 69–148, pis 1-24.Google Scholar
Cappetta, H. 1980b. Modification du statut generique de quelques especes de selaciens cretaces et tertiaires. Palaeovertebrata 10, 29–42.Google Scholar
Cappetta, H. 1987. Chondrichthyes II, Mesozoic and Cenozoic Elasmobranchii. Handbook of Palaeoichthyology 3B, 1–193.Google Scholar
Cappetta, H. & Case, G. R. 1975. Contribution a Fetude des selaciens du groupe Monmouth (Campanien-Maestrichtien) du New Jersey. Palaeontographica, Abteilung A 151, 1–46.Google Scholar
Case, G. R. 1987. A new selachian fauna from the late Campanian of Wyoming (Teapot Sandstone Member, Mesaverde Formation, Big Horn Basin). Palaeontographica, Abteilung A 197, 1–37.Google Scholar
Casier, E. 1942. Contributions a Fetude des poissons fossiles de la Belgique. I. Sur d'importants restes d'un odontaspide (Odontaspis rutoti T. C. Winkler) du Landenien marin du Tournaisis. Bulletin du Musee Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique 18, 1–12.Google Scholar
Casier, E. 1960. Note sur la collection des poissons Paleocenes et Eocenes de l'Enclave de Cabinda (Congo). Annales du Musee Royal du Congo Beige 1, 1–48.Google Scholar
Cigala-Fulgosi, F. 1992. Addition to the fish fauna of the Italian Miocene. The occurrence of Pseudocarcharias (Chondrichthyes, Pseudocarchariidae) in the lower Serravallian of Parma Province, northern Apennines. Tertiary Research 14, 51–60.Google Scholar
Clarke, E. de C. & Teichert, C. 1948. Cretaceous stratigraphy of Lower Murchison River area, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 32, 19–48.Google Scholar
Compagno, L. J. V. 1984. F A O species Catalogue. Vol. 4. Sharks of the World. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. F A 0 Fisheries Synopsis (125) 4, part 1, 1-249, part 2, 250–655.Google Scholar
Condon, M. A. 1954. Progress report on the stratigraphy and structure of the Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Report 15, 1–163.Google Scholar
Condon, M. A. 1968. The geology of the Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Bulletin of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Australia 11, 1–191.Google Scholar
Cuvier, G. L. 1816. La regne animal distribue d'apres son organisation, pour servir de base a I'histoire naturelle des animaux et d'introduction a I'anatomie comparee. Edn. 1, tome II. Les reptiles, les poissons, les mollusques et les annelides. Paris: Deterville.Google Scholar
Davis, J. W. 1887. The fossil fishes of the chalk of Mount Lebanon, in Syria. Scientific Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society 3, 457–634.Google Scholar
Eastman, C. 1895. Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Gattung Oxyrhina, mit besonderer Berecksichtigung von Oxyrhina mantelli Agassiz. Palaeontographica 41, 149–92, pis 41-3.Google Scholar
Garrick, J. A. F. 1967. Revision of sharks of genus Isurus with description of a new species (Galeoidea, Lamnidae). Proceedings of the United States National Museum 115, 559–632.Google Scholar
Glikman, L. S. 1957. Genetic relations of the Lamnidae and Odontaspididae and new genera of lamnids from the Upper Cretaceous. Trudy Geologicheskogo Muzeia Akademiia Nauk SSSR 1, 110–17 [in Russian],Google Scholar
Glikman, L. S. 1958. Rates of evolution in lamnoid sharks. Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR 123, 568–71 [in Russian/.Google Scholar
Glikman, L. S. 1964. Sharks of the Paleogene and their stratigraphic significance [in Russian]. Moscow-Leningrad: Nauka Press.Google Scholar
Gottfried, M. D., Compagno, L. J. V. & Bowman, S. C. 1996. Size and skeletal anatomy of the giant ‘Megatooth’ shark Carcharodon megalodon. In Klimley, A. P. & Ainley, D. G. (eds) Great white sharks, the biology of Carcharodon careharias, 55–66. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Haig, D. W., Watkins, D. K. & Ellis, G. 1996. Mid-Cretaceous calcareous and siliceous microfossils from the basal Gearle Siltstone, Giralia Anticline, Southern Carnarvon Basin. Alcheringa 20, 41–68.Google Scholar
Herman, J. 1977. Les selaciens des terrains neocretaces et paleocenes de Belgique et des contrees limitrophes. Elements d'une biostratigraphique intercontinentale. Memoires pour servir a l'explication des Cartes geologiques et minieres de la Belgique. Service Geologique de Belgique (date of imprint 1975) 15, 1–401.Google Scholar
Johnstone, D., Condon, M. A. & Playford, P. E. 1958. Stratigraphy of the Lower Murchison River area and Yaringa North Station, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 41, 13–16.Google Scholar
, Jordan & , Hannibal 1923. Fossil sharks and rays of the Pacific slope of North America. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 23, 27–63.Google Scholar
Kemp, N. R. 1991. Chondrichthyans in the Cretaceous and Tertiary of Australia. In Vickers-Rich, P., Monaghan, J. M., Baird, R. F. & Rich, T. H. (eds) Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australasia, 497–568. Lilydale: Pioneer Design Studio Pty Ltd, for and in co-operation with the Monash University Publications Committee, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Landemaine, O. 1991. Selaciens nouveaux du Cretace superieur du sud-ouest de la France quelques apports a la systematique des elasmobranches. Saga Information, Societe Amicale des Geologues Amateurs 1, 1–45.Google Scholar
Leidy, J. 1868. Notice of American species of Ptychodus. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 20, 205–208.Google Scholar
Leriche, M. 1905. Les poissons tertiaires de la Belgique. II. Les poissons Eocenes. Memoires du Musee Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique 11, 49–228.Google Scholar
Leriche, M. 1910. Les poissons Tertiaires de la Belgique. III. Les poissons Oligocenes. Memoires du Musee Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique 5, 229–363.Google Scholar
Leriche, M. 1929. Les poissons du Cretace marin de la Belgique et du Limbourg hollandais (Note preliminaire). Les resultats stratigraphiques de leur etude. Bulletin de la Societe Beige de Geologie, de Paleontologie et de Hydrobiologie, Bruxelles 37, 199–299.Google Scholar
Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema naturae. 10th edn., Vol. 1, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Long, D. J. & Waggoner, B. M. 1996. Evolutionary relationships of the white shark: A phylogeny of lamniform sharks based on dental morphology. In Klimley, A. P. & Ainley, D. G. (eds) Great white sharks, the biology of Carcharodon careharias, 37–47. San Diego: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcinowski, R. & Radwanski, A. 1983. The mid-Cretaceous transgression onto the Central Polish Uplands (marginal part of the Central European Basin). Zitteliana 10, 65–95.Google Scholar
Matsubara, K. 1936. A new carcharoid shark found in Japan. The Zoological Magazine 48, 380–2.Google Scholar
Miiller, A. & Diedrich, C. 1991. Selachier (Pisces, Chondrichthyes) aus dem Cenomanium von Ascheloh am Teutoburger Wald (Nordrhein-Westfalen, NW-Deutschland). Geologie und Palaontologie in Westfalen 20, 1–105.Google Scholar
Mtiller, J. & Henle, J. 1838-1841. Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen. Berlin: Veit.Google Scholar
Pictet, F. J. 1865. Note sur une dent Fetage aptien des environs d'Apt, appartenant a un Notidanus non decrit. Annales de la Societe Litteraire Scientifique et Artistique d'Apt 1, 67–70.Google Scholar
Rafinesque, C. S. 1810. Caratteri di alcuni nuovi generi e nuove specie di animali e piante della Sicilia con varie osservazioni sopra i medesimi. Palermo: San Filippo.Google Scholar
Ride, W. D. L., Sabrosky, C. W., Bernardi, G. & Melville, R. V. (eds) 1985. International code of zoological nomenclature, 3rd edn. London, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Risso, A. 1810. Ichthyologie de Nice, ou histoire narurelle des poissons du department des Alpes maritimes. Paris: F. Schaell.Google Scholar
Rozefelds, A. C. 1993. Lower Cretaceous Anacoracidae? (Lamniformes: Neoselachii); vertebrae and associated dermal scales from Australia. Alcheringa 17, 199–210.Google Scholar
Shafik, S. 1990. Late Cretaceous nannofossil biostratigraphy and biogeography of the Australian western margin. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics 295, 1–164.Google Scholar
Shimada, K. 1997a. Dentition of the Late Cretaceous lamniform shark, Cretoxyrhina mantelli, from the Niobrara Chalk of Kansas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17, 269–79.Google Scholar
Shimada, K. 1997b. Skeletal anatomy of the Late Cretaceous lamniform shark, Cretoxyrhina mantelli, from the Niobrara Chalk in Kansas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17, 642–52.Google Scholar
Shimada, K. 1998. Dental homology in macrophagous lamniform sharks. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18, supplement to number 3, 77A [abstract only].Google Scholar
Siverson, M. 1992. Biology, dental morphology and taxonomy of lamniform sharks from the Campanian of the Kristianstad Basin, Sweden. Palaeontology 35, 519–54.Google Scholar
Siverson, M. 1996. Lamniform sharks of the mid-Cretaceous Alinga Formation and Beedagong Claystone, Western Australia. Palaeontology 39, 813–49.Google Scholar
Siverson, M. 1997a. A giant lamniform shark from the mid-Cretaceous Gearle Siltstone in the Southern Carnarvon Basin of Western Australia. In 6th Conference on Australasian Vertebrate Evolution, Palaeontology and Systematics, Programme and abstracts. Perth: Perth Cultural Centre.Google Scholar
Siverson, M. 1997b. Sharks from the mid-Cretaceous Gearle Siltstone, Southern Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17, 453–65.Google Scholar
Sokolov, M. 1978. Requins comme fossiles-guides pour la zonation et la subdivision des couches cretacees de Tourousk [in Russian]. Moscow: Niedra.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. R., Compagno, L. J. V. & Struhsaker, P. J. 1983. Megamouth – a new species, genus, and family of lamnoid shark (Megachasma pelagios, family Megachasmidae) from the Hawaiian Islands. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 43, 87–110.Google Scholar
Uyeno, T., Kondo, Y. & Inoue, K. 1990. A nearly complete tooth set and sevSral vertebrae of the lamnid shark Isurus hastalis from the Pliocene in Chiba, Japan. Journal of the Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba 3, 15–20.Google Scholar
Welton, B. J. & Farish, R. F. 1993. The collector's guide to fossil sharks and rays from the Cretaceous of Texas. Dallas: Before Time.Google Scholar
White, E. I. 1931. The vertebrate faunas of the English Eocene. Vol. I. From the Thanet sands to the Basement Bed of the London Clay. London: British Museum of Natural History.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. E., Lucas, S. G. & Kirkland, J. I. 1991. The Cretaceous elasmobranch Ptychodus decurrens Agassiz from North America. Geobios 24, 595–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williston, S. W. 1900. Cretaceous fishes, selachians and ptychodonts. University Geological Survey, Kansas 6, 237–56.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. S. 1889. Catalogue of the fossil fishes in the British Museum (Natural History). 1. Elasmobranchii. London: British Museum (Natural History).Google Scholar
Woodward, A. S. 1894. Notes on the sharks' teeth from British Cretaceous formations. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, London 13, 190–200.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. S. 1912. The fishes of the English chalk. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society 56–65 (1902-1912), i-viii, 1-264, 49 pis.Google Scholar