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Vertebrate microremains from the Late Devonian (Famennian) of western Mongolia

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Abstract

A middle Famennian shallow-water vertebrate assemblage is described from the shallow-water shelf deposits exposed in the western Mongolia Hushoot Shiveetiin gol section from the Baruunhuurai Terrane of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). The low diversity, yet abundant chondrichthyan fauna represents a typical shallow-water shark biofacies but lacks the expected protacrodont and phoebodont species, instead comprising almost exclusively of ctenacanthiform shark teeth and a new genus and species Junggarensis ambiguus gen. et sp. nov. This new species appears highly derived, likely occupying the shallow-water niche protacrodont and orodont sharks typically inhabit. The identification of tooth variation in Junggarensis ambiguus gen. et sp. nov. has allowed for the synonymy of previous indeterminate Famennian shark teeth and in turn confirms vertebrate faunal connections between the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and areas along the northern margins of Gondwana.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the reviewers, Michal Ginter and Susan Turner for reviewing this manuscript and their helpful comments. This is a contribution to a special series on “The Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) during Late Devonian: new insights from southern Mongolia”. IGCP 596 and its successor, the Western Mongolian Working Group, who have been conducting field work in Mongolia with the goal of identifying Late Devonian extinction and anoxia events that were previously recognised in coeval CAOB terranes in western China. This paper is a contribution to IGCP Project 652 (Reading geologic time in Palaeozoic rocks: the need for an integrated stratigraphy [2017–2021]).

Funding

A.M. recieved funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD - Doctoral Program in Germany - 57381412) and P.K. recieved funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - KO-1622/19-1.

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  1. School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Brett Roelofs & Kate Trinajstic

  2. Senckenberg – Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt, Germany

    Peter Königshof & Ariuntogos Munkhjargal

  3. Mongolian University of Science and Technology, 8th khoroo, Baga Toiruu 34, Sukhbaatar District, Ulaanbaatar, 14191, Mongolia

    Ariuntogos Munkhjargal

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Roelofs, B., Königshof, P., Trinajstic, K. et al. Vertebrate microremains from the Late Devonian (Famennian) of western Mongolia. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 101, 741–753 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-021-00503-1

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