Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:57:43.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New onychodontiform (Osteichthyes; Sarcopterygii) from the Lower Devonian of Victoria, Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Zerina Johanson ,
John A. Long ,
John A. Talent ,
Philippe Janvier  and
James W. Warren
Zerina Johanson
Affiliation:
Department of Paleontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, UK SW7 5BD
John A. Long
Affiliation:
Museum Victoria, PO Box 666E, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia
John A. Talent
Affiliation:
MUCEP, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
Philippe Janvier
Affiliation:
UMR 5143, CNRS, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 8 rue Buffon, Paris F-75005, France
James W. Warren
Affiliation:
Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Onychodontiformes is a poorly known sarcopterygian fish group, with four genera currently described, predominantly from the Middle-Late Devonian. A new onychodont, Bukkanodus jesseni n. gen. and sp., from the Fairy Formation, Victoria, Australia, is of Early Devonian (mid-late Pragian) age, representing one of the oldest known occurrences of this group. Other Pragian onychodonts are represented by a single lower jaw from China, while older occurrences (Lochkovian) include a lower jaw also from China and isolated teeth from Nevada. The Australian material, though disarticulated, includes skull, jaw, and palatal and dental specimens. These specimens share characteristics with younger onychodont taxa, including a laterally compressed tooth whorl with main and accessory rows containing an equal number of teeth, an anteriorly arched shape of the premaxilla, a lateral rostral bone participating in the orbital margin, parietals separated in the midline by small bones, the insertion of the basisphenoid region of the braincase into a posterior area on the parasphenoid, and an ethmoidal sensory canal running along the dorsal margin of the premaxilla rather than through the bone. Bukkanodus jesseni differs from other onychodonts in the presence of a distinct vomer, coronoids with fang pairs, a restricted herringbone pattern of ribs on enamel ridges of teeth, and the presence of a cluster of large pores on certain skull and jaw bones. The course of the ethmoid sensory canal and this cluster of pores are plesiomorphic features for the Onychodontiformes, also occurring in primitive sarcopterygian taxa such as Youngolepis, Powichthys, and Kenichthys. The opening of this cluster on the internal surface of the premaxilla resembles the rostral organ of derived coelacanths.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 81 , Issue 5 , September 2007 , pp. 1031 - 1043
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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. 1833-1845. Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles (5 volumes). Neuchâtel et Soleure, Petitpierre, 1420 p.Google Scholar
Ahlberg, P. E. 1991. A re-examination of sarcopterygian interrelationships, with special reference to the Porolepiformes. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 103:241–287.Google Scholar
Ahlberg, P. E. 1992. A new holoptychiid porolepiform fish from the Upper Frasnian of Elgin, Scotland. Palaeontology, 35:813–828.Google Scholar
Ahlberg, P. E. and Johanson, Z. 1998. Osteolepiformes and the ancestry of tetrapods. Nature, 395:792–794.Google Scholar
Andrews, S. M. 1973. Interrelationships of crossopterygians, p. 138–177. In Greenwood, P. H., Miles, R. S., and Patterson, C. (eds.), Interrelationships of Fishes. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 103.Google Scholar
Andrews, S. M., Long, J. A., Ahlberg, P. E., Campbell, K. S. W., and Barwick, R. E. 2006. Osteology and functional morphology of the sarcopterygian Onychodus jandemarrai n. sp. from Gogo, Western Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences. 96:197–307.Google Scholar
Aquesbi, N. 1988. Etude d'un Onychodontiforme (Osteichthyes, Sarcopterygii) du Dévonien moyen (Eifelien) dur Maroc. Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire naturelle, 10:181–196.Google Scholar
Arratia, G. and Cloutier, R. 1996. A reassessment of the morphology of Cheirolepis canadensis (Actinopterygii), p. 165–197. In Schultze, H.-P. and Cloutier, R. (eds.), Devonian Fishes and Plaants of Miguasha; Quebec, Canada. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, München, Germany.Google Scholar
Bardashev, I. A., Weddige, K., and Ziegler, W. 2002. The polymorphogenesis of some Early Devonian platform conodonts. Senckenbergiana lethaea, 82:375–451.Google Scholar
Blieck, A., Golshani, F., Goujet, D., Hamdi, A., Janvier, P., Mark-Kurik, E., and Martin, M. 1980. A new vertebrate locality in the Eifelian of Khush-Yeilagh formation, eastern Alborz, Iran. Palaeovertebrata, 9-V:133–154.Google Scholar
Boss, K. J. 1982. Mollusca, p. 945–1166. In Parker, S. P. (ed.), Synopsis and Classification of Living Organisms 1. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Chang, M.-M. 1982. The braincase of Youngolepis, a lower Devonian crossopterygian from Yunnan, south-western China. , , 113 p.Google Scholar
Chang, M.-M. 1991. Head exoskeleton and shoulder girdle of Youngolepis, p. 355–378. In Chang, M.-M., Liu, Y. H., and Zhang, G. R. (eds.), Early Vertebrates and Related Problems of Evolutionary Biology. Science Press, Beijing.Google Scholar
Chang, M.-M. and Yu, X.-B. 1981. A new crossopterygian, Youngolepis praecursor gen. et sp. nov., from Lower Devonian of E. Yunnan, China. Scientia Sinica, 24:89–97.Google Scholar
Chang, M.-M. and Zhu, M. 1993. A new Middle Devonian osteolepidid from Qujing, Yunnan, p. 183–198. In Jell, P. A. (ed.), Palaeontological studies in honour of Ken Campbell. Association of Australasian Palaeontologists, Brisbane, Memoir 15.Google Scholar
Cloutier, R. 1996. The primitive actinistian Miguashaia bureaui Schultze, p. 227–247. In Schultze, H.-P. and Cloutier, R. (eds.), Devonian Fishes and Plants of Miguasha, Quebec, Canada. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfiel, Munchen.Google Scholar
Cloutier, R. and Ahlberg, P. E. 1996. Morphology, characters, and the interrelationships of basal sarcopterygians, p. 325–337. In Stiassny, M. L. J., Parenti, L. R., and Johnson, G. D. (eds.), Interrelationships of Fishes. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Cohen, A. C. 1982. Ostracoda, p. 181–202. In Parker, S. P. (ed.), Synopsis and Classification of Living Organisms 2. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Dennis-Bryan, K. 1995. Some comments on the placoderm parasphenoid. Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 17:127–142.Google Scholar
de Pomeroy, A. 1995. Australian Devonian fish biostratigraphy in relation to conodont zonations. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, 182:475–486.Google Scholar
de Pomeroy, A. 1996. Biostratigraphy of Devonian microvertebrates from the Broken River region, north Queensland. Records of the Western Australian Museum, 17:417–437.Google Scholar
Fletcher, K. 1963. The Snowy River Volcanics west of Buchan, Victoria. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 76:169–179.Google Scholar
Gardiner, B. G. 1984. The relationships of the palaeoniscid fishes, a review based on new specimes of Mimia and Moythomasia from the upper Devonian of Western Australia. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology, 37:173–428.Google Scholar
Gardiner, B. G. and Schaeffer, B. 1989. Interrelationships of lower actinopterygian fishes. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society of London, 97:135–187.Google Scholar
Giffin, E. B. 1980. Devonian vertebrates from Australia. Postilla, 180:1–15.Google Scholar
Gross, W. 1933. Die Wirbeltiere des rhenischen Devons. Abhandlungen der Preussischen Geologischen Landesanstalt, 154:1–81.Google Scholar
Gross, W. 1950. Umbenennung von Aldingeria Gross (Palaeoniscidae; Oberdevon) in Moythomasia n. nom. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte, 1950:145.Google Scholar
Gross, W. 1956. Über Crossopterygier und Dipnoer aus dem baltischen Oberdevon im Zusammenhang einer vergleickenenden Untersuchung des Porekanalsystems paläozoischer Agnathen und Fische. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar, 5:1–140.Google Scholar
Gross, W. 1957. Mundzähne und hautzähne der acanthodier und arthrodiren. Palaeontographica Abteilung A, 109:1–40.Google Scholar
Gross, W. 1971. Lophosteus superbus Pander: Zähne, Zahnknochen und besondere schuppenformen. Lethaia, 4:131–152.Google Scholar
Hussakof, L. and Bryant, W. L. 1918. Catalog of the fossil fishes in the museum of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences Bulletin, 12:1–198.Google Scholar
Huxley, T. H. and Etheridge, R. 1865. A Catalogue of the Collection of Fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology, with an explanatory introduction. Eyre, G. E. and Spottiswoode, W., London, 381 p.Google Scholar
Janvier, P. 1996. Early Vertebrates. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 393 p.Google Scholar
Janvier, P. and Martin, M. 1979. Les vertébrés dévoniens de l'Iran central. II. Coelacanthiformes, Struniiformes, Ostéolépiformes. Geobios, 4:497–511.Google Scholar
Jarvik, E. 1948. On the morphology and taxonomy of the middle Devonian osteolepid fishes of Scotland. Kungla Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar, 25:1–301.Google Scholar
Jarvik, E. 1972. Middle and Upper Devonian Porolepiformes from East Greenland with special reference to Glyptolepis groenlandica . Meddelelser om Grønland, 187:1–307.Google Scholar
Jeffery, J. E. 2003. Mandibles of rhizodontids: Anatomy, function and evolution. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 93:255–276.Google Scholar
Jessen, H. 1966. Die Crossopterygier des Oberen Plattenkalkes (Devon) der Bergisch-Gladbach-Paffrather Mulde (Rheinisches Schiefergebirge) unter Berücksichtigung von americkanischem und europäischem Onychodus-material. Arkiv för Zoologi, 18:305–389.Google Scholar
Jessen, H. 1975. A new choanate fish, Powichthys thorsteinssoni n.g., n.sp., from the early Lower Devonian of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Colloques internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 218:214–222.Google Scholar
Johanson, Z. and Ritchie, A. 2000. Rhipidistians (Sarcopterygii) from the Hunter Siltstone (Late Famennian) near Grenfell, NSW, Australia. Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Geowissenschaftliche Reihe, 3:111–136.Google Scholar
Klapper, G. and Johnson, J. G. 1980. Endemism and dispersal of Devonian conodonts. Journal of Paleontology, 54:400–455.Google Scholar
Knight, J. B., Batten, R. L., Yochelson, E. L., and Cox, L. R. 1960. Paleozoic and some Mesozoic Caenogastropoda and Opisthobranchia, p. I310–I331. In Moore, R. C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Pt. I, Mollusca 1. Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Lindley, D. I. 2002. Acanthodian, onychodontid and osteolepidid fish from the middle-upper Taemas Limestone (Early Devonian), Lake Burrinjuck, New South Wales. Alcheringa, 26:103–126.Google Scholar
Long, J. A. 1988. New palaeoniscoid fishes from the Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous of Victoria, p. 1–64. In Jell, P. A. (ed.), Devonian and Carboniferous fish studies. Association of Australasian Palaeontologists, Memoir 7, Sydney.Google Scholar
Long, J. A. 1995. The Rise of Fishes. University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 223 p.Google Scholar
Long, J. A. 1999. A new genus of fossil coelacanth (Osteichthyes; Coelacanthiformes) from the Middle Devonian of southeastern Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement, 57:37–54.Google Scholar
Long, J. A., Barwick, R. E., and Campbell, K. S. W. 1997. Osteology and functional morphology of the osteolepiform fish Gogonasus andrewsae Long, 1985, from the Upper Devonian Gogo Formation, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 53,1–89.Google Scholar
Mawson, R. 1987. Early Devonian conodont faunas from Buchan and Bindi, Victoria, Australia. Palaeontology, 30:251–297.Google Scholar
Mawson, R. 1998. Thoughts on Late Pragian–Emsian polygnathid evolution: Documentation and discussion. Palaeontologia Polonica, 58:201–211.Google Scholar
Mawson, R. and Talent, J. A. 2000. The Devonian of eastern Australia: Stratigraphic alignments, stage and series boundaries, and the transgression-regression pattern re-considered. Courier Forschunginstitut Senckenberg, 225:243–270.Google Scholar
Mawson, R. and Talent, J. A. 2003. Conodont faunas from sequences on or marginal to Anakie Inlier (central Queensland, Australia) in relation to Devonian transgression. Bulletin of Geosciences, 78:335–358.Google Scholar
Mawson, R., Talent, J. A., Brock, G. A., and Engelbretsen, M. J. 1992. Conodont data in relation to sequences about the Pragian–Emsian boundary (Early Devonian) in south-eastern Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 104:23–56.Google Scholar
M'coy, F. 1848. On some new fossil fish of the Carboniferous period. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 2,1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newberry, J. S. 1857. New fossil fishes from the Devonian rocks of Ohio. Amercian Journal of Science, series 2, 24:147–149.Google Scholar
Newberry, J. S. 1873. Description of fossil fishes. Geological Survey of Ohio Report, 1(2):247–355.Google Scholar
Newberry, J. S. 1889. The Paleozoic fishes of North America. United States Geological Survey Monograph, 16:1–340.Google Scholar
Orth, K., Vandenberg, A. H. M., Nott, R. J., and Simons, B. A. 1995. Murrindal 1:100,000 map geological report. Geological Survey of Victoria Report, 100:1–235.Google Scholar
Ørvig, T. 1969. Vertebrates from the Wood Bay Group and the position of the Emsian-Eifelian boundary in the Devonian of Vestspitsbergen. Lethaia, 2:272–328.Google Scholar
Otto, M. 1999. New finds of vertebrates in the Middle Devonian Brandenberg Group (Sauerland, Northwest Germany). Palaontologische Zeitschrift, 73:113–131.Google Scholar
Round, F. E. 1981. The Ecology of Algae. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 653 p.Google Scholar
Schultze, H.-P. 1973. Crossopterygier mit heterozerker Schwanzflosse aus dem Oberdevon Kanadas, nebst Onychodontida-Resten aus dem Mitteldevons Spaniens und aus dem Karbon der USA. Paleontographica Abteilung A, 143:188–203.Google Scholar
Sedgewick, A. and Murchison, R. I. 1829. On the structure and relations of the deposits contained between the primary rocks and the oolitic series in the north of Scotland. Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 3,29–72.Google Scholar
Shubert, E. 1984. Algae as Ecological Indicators. Academic Press, New York, 395 p.Google Scholar
Simpson, A. J. and Talent, J. A. 1995. Silurian conodonts from the head-waters of the Indi (upper Murray) and Buchan rivers, southeastern Australia, and their implications. Courier Forschunginstitut Senckenberg, 182:79–215.Google Scholar
Slavík, L. 2004. The Pragian–Emsian conodont successions of the Barrandian area: Search of an alternative to the GSSP polyhgnathid-based correlation concept. Geobios, 37:454–470.Google Scholar
Smith, M. M. 1989. Distribution and variation in enamel structure in the oral teeth of sarcopterygians: Its significance for the evolution of a protoprismatic enamel. Historial Biology, 3:97–126.Google Scholar
Stensiö, E. 1969. Placodermata; Arthrodires, p. 71–692. In Piveteau, J. (ed.), Traité de Paléontologie, 4. Masson et Cie, Paris.Google Scholar
Talent, J. A. 1956. Devonian brachiopods and pelycopods from the Buchan Caves Limestone, Victoria. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 68:1–56.Google Scholar
Talent, J. A. 1989. Transgression-regression pattern for the Silurian and Devonian of Australia, p. 201–219. In Le Maitre, R. W. (ed.), Pathways in Geology—Essays in Honour of Edwin Sherbon Hills. Blackwells, Carlton, Australia.Google Scholar
Talent, J. A., Mawson, R., and 21 Others. 2000. Devonian palaeobiogeography of Australia and adjoining regions. Association of Australasian Palaeontologists Memoir, 23:167–257.Google Scholar
Tasch, P. 1969. Branchiopoda, p. R128–R191. In Moore, R. C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Pt. R, Arthropoda 4 (1). Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Tasch, P. 1987. Fossil Conchostraca of the Southern Hemisphere and continental drift. Geological Society of America Memoir, 165:1–290.Google Scholar
Teichert, C. and Talent, J. A. 1958. Geology of the Buchan area, East Gippsland. Geological Survey of Victoria Memoir, 21:1–56.Google Scholar
Traquair, R. H. 1888. Notes of the nomenclature of the fishes of the Old Red Sandstone of Great Britain. Geological Magazine, 5:507–517.Google Scholar
Turner, S. 1993. Palaeozoic microvertebrate biostratigraphy of eastern Gondwana, p. 174–207. In Long, J. A. (ed.), Palaeozoic Vertebrate Biostratigraphy and Biogeography. Belhaven Press, London.Google Scholar
Turner, S. and Murphy, M. A. 1988. Early Devonian microfossils from the Simpson Park Range, Eureka County, Nevada. Journal of Paleontology, 62:959–964.Google Scholar
Turner, S., Basden, A., and Burrow, C. J. 2000. Devonian vertebrates of Queensland. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, 223:487–522.Google Scholar
Vandenberg, A. H. M., Hendricks, M. A., Willman, C. E., Magart, A. P. M., Oranskaia, A., Rooney, S., and White, A. J. R. 1996. The geology and prospectivity of the Orbost 1:100,000 map area, eastern Victoria. Victorian Initiative for Minerals and Petroleum Report, 25:1–158.Google Scholar
Warren, J. W. and Talent, J. A. 1967. Devonian fish from Buchan, Victoria. Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science Abstracts, Section C: K1.Google Scholar
Yolkin, E. A., Kim, A. I., Weddige, K., Talent, J. A., and House, M. R. 1997. Definition of the Pragian/Emsian Stage boundary. Episodes, 20:235–240.Google Scholar
Young, G. C. and Schultze, H.-P. 2005. New osteichthyans (bony fishes) from the Devonian of Central Australia. Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin Geowissenschaftliche Reihe, 8:13–35.Google Scholar
Yu, X.-B. 1998. A new porolepiform-like fish, Psarolepis romeri, gen. et sp. nov. (Sarcopterygii, Osteichthyes) from the Lower Devonian of Yunnan, China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 18:261–274 Google Scholar
Zhu, M. and Janvier, P. 1994. Un Onychodontide (Vertebrata, Sarcopterygii) du Dévonien Inférieur de Chine. Comptes Rendues de l'Academie des Sciences Paris, 319:951–956.Google Scholar
Zhu, M. and Yu, X.-B. 2004. Lower jaw character transitions among major sarcopteygian groups—a survey based on new materials from Yunnan, China, p. 271–286. In Arratia, G., Wilson, M. V. H., and Cloutier, R. (eds.), Recent Advances in the Origin and Early Radiation of Vertebrates. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, München, Germany.Google Scholar