The Neogene fossil record of Aetomylaeus (Elasmobranchii, Myliobatidae) from the south-eastern Pacific

Autor(en)
Jaime A. Villafaña, Giuseppe Marrama, Sebastian Hernandez, Jorge Carillo-Briceño, Dirk Hovestadt, René Kindlimann, Jürgen Kriwet
Abstrakt

The presence of eagle rays of the genus Aetomylaeus in the Neogene of the Temperate Pacific coast of South America (TPSA) still is ambiguous, although the fossil record of elasmobranch fishes (sharks, rays, and skates) from this area is quite good. Here, we present the first unmistakable fossil remains of Aetomylaeus from the Neogene of the TPSA. The material comprises 13 dental plates from one site in Peru and six localities in Chile ranging in age from Miocene to Pliocene and was compared with dental plates of extant species. Our study reveals that the number of tooth rows and the shape of lateral teeth in extant species are seemingly very variable and need to be established before fossil specimens can be confidently identified. Consequently, we do not assign the fossil specimens from the Neogene of the TPSA to any species but leave them as Aetomylaeus. Moreover, we recognized that only the shape of medial teeth provides reliable diagnostic characters in our material, whereas the shape and number of lateral teeth are highly variable, similar to the condition seen in extant species.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Paläontologie
Externe Organisation(en)
Universidad Veritas, Universität Wien, Universität Zürich (UZH), Independent researcher, Independent researcher
Journal
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
Band
39
Anzahl der Seiten
11
ISSN
0272-4634
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2019.1577251
Publikationsdatum
04-2019
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
106003 Biodiversitätsforschung, 105118 Paläontologie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Palaeontology
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/2b892844-6d2d-43c9-bc1b-304fd99585f6