Ctenodus boudariensis nov. sp., a ctenodont lungfish from the mid-Viséan Ducabrook Formation of Queensland, Australia

Abstract

Kemp, A. 24 April, 2019. Ctenodus boudariensis nov. sp., a ctenodont lungfish from the mid-Viséan Ducabrook Formation of Queensland, Australia. Alcheringa 43, 423-429. ISSN 0311-5518.An extensive collection of isolated tooth plates and skull bones of a lungfish is described from the early Carboniferous mid-Viséan Ducabrook Formation from Ducabrook, in the Drummond Basin, east central Queensland. This species of lungfish, Ctenodus boudariensis, only about one metre in length, was small compared with members of the genus from the Northern Hemisphere. Many characters of the head of C. boudariensis are reminiscent of the skull of the living Australian lungfish, such as the lack of bone around the olfactory organ, and the presence of exoccipital bones embedded in the chondrocranium, although C. boudariensis has gular bones in the mandible, where the living species has scales. The skull has paired E and C bones, a single D bone perforated by a foramen for the pineal organ and a large unpaired B bone flanked by tabular bones with attachment sites for the epaxial muscles of the trunk. The tooth plates, while similar to those of European genera of Ctenodus, were narrower and had fewer ridges. This record extends the incidence of Ctenodus of the classic form, common in Carboniferous and Permian deposits in Europe and also recorded from localities of similar age in North America, to eastern Australia.Anne Kemp [annerkemp@gmail.com], Queensland Museum, Hendra Annexe, 122 Gerler Road, Hendra, Queensland 4011, Australia.