Carboniferous chondrichthyan assemblages from the Surprise Canyon and Watahomigi formations (latest Mississippian–Early Pennsylvanian) of the western Grand Canyon, Northern Arizona

John-Paul M Hodnett,David K Elliott

doi:10.1017/jpa.2018.72

Abstract

AbstractTwo chondrichthyan assemblages of Late Mississippian/Early Pennsylvanian age are now recognized from the western Grand Canyon of northern Arizona. The latest Serpukhovian Surprise Canyon Formation has yielded thirty-one taxa from teeth and dermal elements, which include members of the Phoebodontiformes, Symmoriiformes, Bransonelliformes, Ctenacanthiformes, Protacrodontoidea, Hybodontiformes, Neoselachii (Anachronistidae), Paraselachii (Gregoriidae, Deeberiidae, Orodontiformes, and Eugeneodontiformes), Petalodontiformes, and Holocephali. The euselachian grade taxa are remarkably diverse with four new taxa recognized here; the Protacrodontidae:Microklomax carrieaenew genus new species andNovaculodus billingsleyinew genus new species, and the Anchronistidae:Cooleyella plateranew species andAmaradontus santuciinew genus new species The Surprise Canyon assemblage also has the youngest occurrence of the elasmobranchClairina, previously only known from the Upper Devonian. The Surprise Canyon Formation represents a nearshore fluvial infilling of karstic channels, followed by a shallow marine bioherm reef, and finally deeper open water deposition. The early Bashkirian Watahomigi Formation represents open marine deposition and contains only two taxa: a new xenacanthiform,Hokomata parvanew genus new species, and the holocephalanDeltodus. The relationship between the Surprise Canyon and Watahomigi chondrichthyan assemblages and other significant coeval chondrichthyan assemblages suggests that there may have been eastern and western distinctions among the Euamerican assemblages during the Serpukhovian due to geographic separation by the formation of Pangea.UUID:http://zoobank.org/54a906b6-4873-4f84-92b5-ca0752de01aa

Highlights

The diversity of marine fish during the latest Mississippian (Serpukhovian) and its subsequent transition to the Pennsylvanian (Bashkirian) is at present poorly understood
Surprise Canyon Formation, transitional lower/middle member.—A small but diverse assemblage of microvertebrate fossils was collected from conodont residues from the Burnt Springs Canyon (BC) locality from section 10, which is a calcareous light orange-brown, fine- to medium-grained, thinly laminated to thin-bedded sandstone that was treated by Billingsley and Beus (1999b) as the lowermost section of the middle member
The chondrichthyan assemblage from the Latest Mississippian (Serpukhovian) Surprise Canyon Formation of the western Grand Canyon is remarkably diverse with a total of thirty-one taxa, identified from teeth and dermal elements

Summary

Introduction

The diversity of marine fish during the latest Mississippian (Serpukhovian) and its subsequent transition to the Pennsylvanian (Bashkirian) is at present poorly understood. Surprise Canyon Formation, transitional lower/middle member.—A small but diverse assemblage of microvertebrate fossils was collected from conodont residues from the Burnt Springs Canyon (BC) locality from section 10, which is a calcareous light orange-brown, fine- to medium-grained, thinly laminated to thin-bedded sandstone that was treated by Billingsley and Beus (1999b) as the lowermost section of the middle member. An isolated cochliodont tooth was collected from the lower Watahomigi Formation, “10 meters above the Surprise Canyon Formation” from an undisclosed locality close to Three Springs Canyon in the western Grand Canyon by George Billingsley in 1984 (Smithsonian Paleobiology records) At this phase of the transgression, all paleovalleys were filled

Materials and methods

Conclusions