[PaleoIchthyology • 2022] Langlieria smalingi • Second Species of Langlieria (Sarcopterygii: Tristichopteridae) from the Upper Devonian Catskill Formation of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., and A New Phylogenetic Consideration of Tristichopteridae

Langlieria smalingi

Downs & Daeschler, 2022

DOI: 10.1635/053.167.0115 

 

Abstract

A new species of Langlieria is described from the Upper Devonian (Frasnian) Irish Valley Member of the Catskill Formation. The type material was collected from a road cut exposure on the north side of the westbound lanes of Pennsylvania Route 322 west of Port Matilda, Centre County, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The new species of Langlieria, the second from the Catskill Formation, is represented by high quality cranial material including parietal and postparietal shields, cheek, principal gular, and lower jaw; fin material; and body scales. The new species is the fourth tristichopterid to be described from the Catskill Formation (after Hyneria lindae, Langlieria radiatus, and Eusthenodon bourdoni) and the first from the Irish Valley Member. It is also the first species of Langlieria with a known record in the Frasnian. Sedimentological and stratigraphic data suggest that the discovery site represents a distal, tide-dominated location within the Catskill Delta system with a greater marine influence than has been reconstructed for the previously described Catskill Formation tristichopterids. A new phylogenetic analysis of Tristichopteridae is presented that is the first to include the new species of Langlieria described here and E. bourdoni from the Cogan House Exit Ramp locality (Famennian, Duncannon Member) along U.S. Route 15/Interstate 99. The 50% majority-rule consensus tree from the analysis supports a highly-nested clade of tristichopterids that includes all of the considered species from the Famennian, with the exception of Heddleichthys dalgleisiensis, and additionally includes the Frasnian Langlieria species that is described here.

Langlieria smalingi

Jason P. Downs and Edward B. Daeschler. 2022. Second Species of Langlieria (Tristichopteridae, Sarcopterygii) from the Upper Devonian Catskill Formation of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., and A New Phylogenetic Consideration of Tristichopteridae. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 167(1); 241-260. DOI: 10.1635/053.167.0115 

 

NEW SPECIES OF ANCIENT FISH DISCOVERED ALONG PENNSYLVANIA ROADSIDE

newsblog.drexel.edu/2022/04/26/new-species-of-ancient-fish-discovered-along-pennsylvania-roadside/

[Paleontology • 2024] Gaiasia jennyae • Giant stem Tetrapod was Apex Predator in Gondwanan late Palaeozoic Ice Age

  

Gaiasia jennyae

Marsicano, Pardo, Smith, Mancuso, Gaetano & Mocke, 2024

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07572-0

Abstract

Current hypotheses of early tetrapod evolution posit close ecological and biogeographic ties to the extensive coal-producing wetlands of the Carboniferous palaeoequator with rapid replacement of archaic tetrapod groups by relatives of modern amniotes and lissamphibians in the late Carboniferous (about 307 million years ago). These hypotheses draw on a tetrapod fossil record that is almost entirely restricted to palaeoequatorial Pangea (Laurussia). Here we describe a new giant stem tetrapod, Gaiasia jennyae, from high-palaeolatitude (about 55° S) early Permian-aged (about 280 million years ago) deposits in Namibia that challenges this scenario. Gaiasia is represented by several large, semi-articulated skeletons characterized by a weakly ossified skull with a loosely articulated palate dominated by a broad diamond-shaped parasphenoid, a posteriorly projecting occiput, and enlarged, interlocking dentary and coronoid fangs. Phylogenetic analysis resolves Gaiasia within the tetrapod stem group as the sister taxon of the Carboniferous Colosteidae from Euramerica. Gaiasia is larger than all previously described digited stem tetrapods and provides evidence that continental tetrapods were well established in the cold-temperate latitudes of Gondwana during the final phases of the Carboniferous–Permian deglaciation. This points to a more global distribution of continental tetrapods during the Carboniferous–Permian transition and indicates that previous hypotheses of global tetrapod faunal turnover and dispersal at this time must be reconsidered.

 

Claudia A. Marsicano, Jason D. Pardo, Roger M. H. Smith, Adriana C. Mancuso, Leandro C. Gaetano  and Helke Mocke. 2024. Giant stem Tetrapod was Apex Predator in Gondwanan late Palaeozoic ice age. Nature.  DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07572-0

[PaleoIchthyology • 2023] Hyneria udlezinye • A high Latitude Gondwanan Species of the Late Devonian tristichopterid Hyneria (Osteichthyes: Sarcopterygii) from South Africa

 

 Hyneria udlezinye

Gess & Ahlberg, 2023

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281333

Painting by Maggie Newman

Abstract

We describe the largest bony fish in the Late Devonian (late Famennian) fossil assemblage from Waterloo Farm near Makhanda/Grahamstown, South Africa. It is a giant member of the extinct clade Tristichopteridae (Sarcopterygii: Tetrapodomorpha) and most closely resembles Hyneria lindae from the late Famennian Catskill Formation of Pennsylvania, USA. Notwithstanding the overall similarity, it can be distinguished from H. lindae on a number of morphological points and is accordingly described as a new species, Hyneria udlezinye sp. nov. The preserved material comprises most of the dermal skull, lower jaw, gill cover and shoulder girdle. The cranial endoskeleton appears to have been unossified and is not preserved, apart from a fragment of the hyoid arch adhering to a subopercular, but the postcranial endoskeleton is represented by an ulnare, some semi-articulated neural spines, and the basal plate of a median fin. The discovery of H. udlezinye shows that Hyneria is a cosmopolitan genus extending into the high latitudes of Gondwana, not a Euramerican endemic. It supports the contention that the derived clade of giant tristichopterids, which alongside Hyneria includes such genera as Eusthenodon, Edenopteron and Mandageria, originated in Gondwana.

Systematic palaeontology

OSTEICHTHYES Huxley, 1880

SARCOPTERYGII Romer, 1955

TETRAPODOMORPHA Ahlberg, 1989

TRISTICHOPTERIDAE Cope, 1889

Diagnosis— Tetrapodomorph sarcopterygians with postspiracular bone present, vomers with long caudal process clasping the parasphenoid, circular scales with a median boss, and an elongate body with a trifurcate or rhombic caudal fin (modified from [3]).

HYNERIA Thomson, 1968

Type species— Hyneria lindae Thomson, 1968; Hyner, Pennsylvania, USA.

AM6540b and AM6528a, the two main blocks of the holotype of Hyneria udlezinye.
Each block also has a counterpart (not illustrated). A, AM6540b. Unlabelled bones all belong to a single large individual of the arthrodire placoderm Groenlandaspis riniensis [Long, et al. 1997]. B, AM6528a. This block also carries a jugal of the tetrapod Umzantsia amazana [Gess & Ahlberg, 2018] and a paranuchal of a small individual of Groenlandaspis riniensis.

Skull reconstruction of Hyneria udlezinye.
Dorsal (A) and lateral (B) views, drawn from photographs of a three-dimensional model, scaled to the size of the holotype.

Abbreviations: An, anocleithrum; Ang, angular; Cl, clavicle; Cle, cleithrum; De, dentary; It, intertemporal; Ju, jugal; La, lacrimal; M.Pr, median postrostral; Mx, maxilla; Op, opercular; Pa, parietal; Pi, pineal; Po, postorbital; Pop, preopercular; Pospl, postsplenial; Pp-St-Ta, postparietal, supratemporal and tabular (sutures not visible); Qj, qudratojugal; Sop, subopercular; Sq, squamosal; Sur, surangular.

Hyneria udlezinye sp. nov.  

"Probable eusthenopterid" [Gess & Hiller, 1995]

"Close to Eusthenodon" [Anderson, et al., 1999]

"Similar to Hyneria" [Gess & Coates, 2008]

"cf Hyneria" [Gess, 2011]

"Hyneria-like" [Gess & Whitfield, 2020]

Diagnosis—A very large tristichopterid, closely resembling Hyneria lindae but differing from it in the following respects: postparietal shield widening more strongly from anterior to posterior; lateral corner of tabular weakly developed; preopercular and lacrimal proportionally deeper; denticulated field on parasphenoid extends further anteriorly; subopercular more shallow; dentary fangs proportionately larger.

Etymology— an apposition, from isiXhosa ‘udlezinye’, meaning ‘one who eats others’, referring to the inferred predatory lifestyle of the species. IsiXhosa is the widely spoken indigenous language of south-eastern South Africa where the fossil locality is located.

Life reconstruction of the non-marine component of the Waterloo Farm biota. Hyneria udlezinye is shown together with the tetrapods Umzantsia amazana and Tutusius umlambo [Gess & Ahlberg, 2018], the placoderms Groenlandaspis riniensis and Bothriolepis africana [Long, et al., 1997], the coelacanth Serenichthys kowiensis [Gess & Coates, 2015], the lungfish Isityumzi mlomomde [Gess & Clemen, 2019], and a cyrtoctenid eurypterid.

Painting by Maggie Newman, copyright R. W. Gess.

Conclusion: 

The largest osteichthyan member of the Waterloo Farm vertebrate assemblage, a predatory sarcopterygian with a probable maximum length of nearly three metres, proves to be a new species of the genus Hyneria. This genus is otherwise only recorded from the late Famennian Catskill Formation of Pennsylvania. The new species, Hyneria udlezinye, differs from the type species Hyneria lindae in a number of minor but securely attested proportional characters relating to the skull roof, cheek, lower jaw and operculum. Hyneria now joins Eusthenodon and Langlieria as one of the derived, late, giant tristichopterids known from both Euramerica and Gondwana. The other confirmed members of this clade (Mandageria, Cabonnichthys and Edenopteron) are exclusively known from Gondwana. This strongly supports the contention that this clade represents a Gondwanan radiation [Olive, et al. 2020].

Hyneria udlezinye is the first tristichopterid to be recorded from a high palaeolatitude, all other members of the group coming from palaeoequatorial to mid-palaeolatitude localities. All previously recorded Gondwanan members of the derived tristichopterid clade come from Australia, leading Olive et al. [2020] to argue for an Australian origin for this clade. The new evidence from Waterloo Farm, however, suggests that a more general Gondwanan origin for this clade is highly likely. This once again demonstrates how inferences about biogeographical patterns have historically been skewed by a paucity of data from high-palaeolatitude localities. Such data can only come from Gondwana, as no continents extended into northern high latitudes during the Devonian. The Waterloo Farm lagerstätte provides a unique window into an almost unknown part of the Late Devonian world.

Robert W. Gess and Per E. Ahlberg. 2023. A high Latitude Gondwanan Species of the Late Devonian tristichopterid Hyneria (Osteichthyes: Sarcopterygii). PLoS ONE. 18(2): e0281333. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281333

[Paleontology • 2022] Qikiqtania wakei • A New Elpistostegalian (Sarcopterygii: Tetrapodomorpha) from the Late Devonian of the Canadian Arctic

Qikiqtania wakei

 Stewart, Lemberg, Daly, Daeschler & Shubin, 2022

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04990-w

Abstract

A fundamental gap in the study of the origin of limbed vertebrates lies in understanding the morphological and functional diversity of their closest relatives. Whereas analyses of the elpistostegalians Panderichthys rhombolepis, Tiktaalik roseae and Elpistostege watsoni have revealed a sequence of changes in locomotor, feeding and respiratory structures during the transition, an isolated bone, a putative humerus, has controversially hinted at a wider range in form and function than now recognized. Here we report the discovery of a new elpistostegalian from the Late Devonian period of the Canadian Arctic that shows surprising disparity in the group. The specimen includes partial upper and lower jaws, pharyngeal elements, a pectoral fin and scalation. This new genus is phylogenetically proximate to T. roseae and E. watsoni but evinces notable differences from both taxa and, indeed, other described tetrapodomorphs. Lacking processes, joint orientations and muscle scars indicative of appendage-based support on a hard substrate, its pectoral fin shows specializations for swimming that are unlike those known from other sarcopterygians. This unexpected morphological and functional diversity represents a previously hidden ecological expansion, a secondary return to open water, near the origin of limbed vertebrates.

Systematic palaeontology

Sarcopterygii Romer, 1955

Tetrapodomorpha Ahlberg, 1991

Elpistostegalia Camp and Allison, 1961

Qikiqtania wakei gen. et sp. nov.

Locality. Canada, Nunavut, southern Ellesmere Island, near the eastern arm of Bird Fiord, Nunavut Paleontological Expedition site NV0401, ....

Geological setting. Fram Formation (Upper Devonian, early Frasnian Stage).

Holotype. Nunavut Fossil Vertebrate Collection (NUFV) 137.

 

Diagnosis. Elpistostegalian tetrapodomorph characterized by the following unique combination of characters: dorsoventral asymmetry in pectoral fin lepidotrichia (also present in T. roseae) and possession of a boomerang-shaped humerus lacking ventral ridge and associated foramina and ectepicondyle (distinct from P. rhombolepis, E. watsoni, T. roseae and more crownward tetrapods).

Etymology. Qikiqtania (pronounced ‘kick-kiq-tani-ahh’) is derived from Inuktitut word Qikiqtaaluk/Qikiqtani, the traditional name for the region where the fossil site occurs. The species designation is in memory of David Wake, an eminent evolutionary biologist and transformative mentor, late of the University of California at Berkeley.

 

Thomas A. Stewart, Justin B. Lemberg, Ailis Daly, Edward B. Daeschler and Neil H. Shubin. 2022. A New Elpistostegalian from the Late Devonian of the Canadian Arctic. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04990-w

    

[PaleoIchthyology • 2017] Hongyu chowi • A Devonian Tetrapod-like Fish Reveals Substantial Parallelism in Stem Tetrapod Evolution

Hongyu chowi 

Zhu, Ahlberg, Zhao & Jia, 2017  

DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0293-5 

Abstract

The fossils assigned to the tetrapod stem group document the evolution of terrestrial vertebrates from lobe-finned fishes. During the past 18 years the phylogenetic structure of this stem group has remained remarkably stable, even when accommodating new discoveries such as the earliest known stem tetrapod Tungsenia and the elpistostegid (fish–tetrapod intermediate) Tiktaalik. Here we present a large lobe-finned fish from the Late Devonian period of China that disrupts this stability. It combines characteristics of rhizodont fishes (supposedly a basal branch in the stem group, distant from tetrapods) with derived elpistostegid-like and tetrapod-like characters. This mélange of characters may reflect either detailed convergence between rhizodonts and elpistostegids plus tetrapods, under a phylogenetic scenario deduced from Bayesian inference analysis, or a previously unrecognized close relationship between these groups, as supported by maximum parsimony analysis. In either case, the overall result reveals a substantial increase in homoplasy in the tetrapod stem group. It also suggests that ecological diversity and biogeographical provinciality in the tetrapod stem group have been underestimated.

Fig. 1 | V17681, holotype of Hongyu chowi gen. et sp. nov. ; Dorsal view. 

Systematic palaeontology. 

Osteichthyes Huxley, 1880

Sarcopterygii Romer, 1955

Tetrapodomorpha Ahlberg, 1991

Hongyu chowi gen. et sp. nov.

Etymology. The generic name derives from hong (Chinese Pinyin), which means large and yu (Chinese Pinyin), which means fish. The specific is in honor of Min-Chen Chow. 

Holotype. IVPP V17681, a three-dimensionally preserved and partially articulated specimen.

 Locality. A quarry at Shixiagou, Qingtongxia, Ningxia, China. Approximate coordinates: 37° 39′ 18.4″ N, 105° 59′ 34.2″ E. Horizon. Zhongning Formation, Famennian, Late Devonian period.

Fig. 4 | Life restoration. Hongyu chowi gen. et sp. nov. and associated antiarchs (Ningxialepis spinosa) from the Zhongning Formation (Famennian, Late Devonian period), Ningxia, China.

Illustration: B. Choo.

Min Zhu, Per E. Ahlberg, Wen-Jin Zhao and Lian-Tao Jia. 2017. A Devonian Tetrapod-like Fish Reveals Substantial Parallelism in Stem Tetrapod Evolution.

 Nature Ecology & Evolution. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0293-5

Weird fish fossil changes the story of how we moved onto land

newscientist.com/article/2146256-weird-fish-fossil-changes-the-story-of-how-we-moved-onto-land/