Jurassic neoselachian sharks from the Mt Nerone Pelagic Carbonate Platform (Umbria-Marche Apennine, Italy): a further constrain for the palaeoecology related to PCP systems

ROMANO, MARCO; FABBI, SIMONE; CITTON, PAOLO; CIPRIANI, ANGELO

Historical Biology

Taylor and Francis

Año: 2021 vol. 33 p. 1383 - 1394

0891-2963

The Mt Nerone area hosts a Jurassic-Cretaceous Pelagic Carbonate Platform (PCP)-basin succession in theUmbria-Marche Domain (Central Italy). Despite being studied thoroughly on sedimentological and geologicalaspects, wide-spectrum palaeocological studies are currently missing for this peculiar setting. Whileseveral studies on the invertebrate fauna of PCP system are available, the vertebrate fauna remained fora long time mostly unknown. Recently a renewed interest has been directed to vertebrate remains of theregion. To date, an articulated dentition and some other tooth fragments of hybodont sharks and neoginglymodianactinopterygians have been described from the Jurassic of the Mt Nerone area. These taxaindicate the existence of diverse durophagous ecological niches available for durophagous fauna in thePCP system, linked to the abundant hard-shelled invertebrate fauna inhabiting the structural highs. In thepresent contribution we report and describe remains of neoselachians Synechodontiformes from fivelocalities of the Mt Nerone area. The new material, represented by several isolated teeth and referred toas Sphenodus spp., testifies an additional trophic level for the Jurassic palaeoecology in the Umbria-MarcheDomain, throwing new light on the peculiar PCP-basin ecosystem.