<i>Squaloraja</i> Riley 1833 (Holocephala: Squalorajidae) from the Lower Jurassic of Osteno Konservat-Lagerstätte (Como, NW Italy)

Christopher J. Duffin; Alessandro Garassino; Giovanni Pasini

doi:10.4081/nhs.2023.642

Authors

Christopher J. Duffin Department of Earth Science, Palaeontology Section, The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
Alessandro Garassino
alegarassino@gmail.com
Department of Earth and Biological Sciences, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, United States.
Giovanni Pasini Appiano Gentile (Como), Italy.

A remarkable, complete specimen of a squalorajid holocephalian is described for the first time from the Lower Jurassic (lower Sinemurian) rocks of Osteno (Como, NW Italy). It is the only such specimen known from the locality and belongs to a (possibly juvenile) female. The Italian specimen is assigned to Squaloraja sp., and has a large dorsoventrally flattened head, long rostrum, a single mandibular tooth plate on each lower jaw, a well-developed synarcual, thick notochordal sheath calcifications, and only slightly reduced squamation comprising distinctive placoid scales with stellate bases. There is no ethmoid canal, dorsal fin or fin spine. The Lower Jurassic succession (‘Lower Lias’) of Lyme Regis (Dorset, UK) has yielded only two incomplete purported female specimens of the type species of the genus, Squaloraja polyspondyla, thus restricting potential comparison with the Italian specimen. This new record of the genus expands the known palaeogeographical distribution of this rare holocephalian.

Agassiz L., 1833-1844 – Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles. With supplement. Imprimerie de Petitpierre, Neuchâtel. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.4275

Arduini P., Pinna G. & Teruzzi G., 1982 – Il giacimento sinemuriano di Osteno in Lombardia e i suoi fossili. In: Palaeontology essentials of Historical Geology. Montanaro Gallitelli E. (ed.). S.T.E.M. Mucchi: 495-522.

Bonaparte C. L. J. L., 1838 – Selachorum tabula analytica. Nuovi Annali delle Scienze Naturali Bologna, 2: 195-214.

Briggs D. E. G. & Kear A. J., 1994 – Decay and Mineralization of Shrimps. Palaios, 9: 431-456. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3515135

Davies W., 1872 – On the rostral prolongations of Squaloraja polyspondyla, Ag. Geological Magazine, 9: 145-150. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756800468056

Dean B., 1906 – Chimaeroid fishes and their development. Publications Carnegie Institution, 32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.32902

De Beer G. R. & Moy-Thomas J. A., 1935 – On the skull of Holocephali. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, 224: 287-312. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1935.0001

Delsate D., Duffin C. J. & Weis R., 2002 – A new microvertebrate fauna from the Middle Hettangian (Early Jurassic) of Fontenoille (Province of Luxembourg, south Belgium). Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Belgium, 48: 3-84.

Didier D. A., 1995 – Phylogenetic systematics of extant chimaeroid fishes (Holocephali, Chimaeroidei). American Museum Novitates, 3119: 1-86.

Didier D. A., 2004 – Phylogeny and classification of extant Holocephali. In: Biology of sharks and their relatives. Carrier J. C., Musick J. A. & Heithaus M. R. (eds.). CRC Press, Boca Raton: 115-135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203491317.ch4

Duffin C. J., 1983 – Holocephalans in the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart. 1. Myriacanthoids and Squalorajoids. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, B, 97: 1-41.

Duffin C. J., 1987 – Palaeospinax pinnai n. sp., a new palaeospinacid shark from the Sinemurian (Lower Jurassic) of Osteno (Lombardy, Italy). Atti della Società italiana di Scienze naturali e del Museo civico di Storia naturale in Milano, 128 (1-2): 185-202.

Duffin C. J., 1992 – A myriacanthid holocephalan (Chondrichthyes) from the Sinemurian (Lower Jurassic) of Osteno (Lombardy, Italy). Atti della Società italiana di Scienze naturali e del Museo civico di Storia naturale in Milano, 132 (23): 293-308.

Duffin C. J., 1998 – Ostenoselache stenosoma n.g. n.sp., a new neoselachian shark from the Sinemurian (Early Jurassic) of Osteno (Lombardy, Italy). Paleontologia Lombarda, nuova serie, 9: 1-27.

Duffin C. & Patterson C., 1993 – I Pesci fossili di Osteno: una nuova finestra sulla vita del Giurassico inferiore. Paleocronache, 1993 (2): 18-38.

Garassino A. & Teruzzi G., 2015 – Osteno, Una finestra sul Giurassico. Natura, 105 (1): 3-64.

Hof C. H. J. & Briggs D. E. G.,1997–Decay and Mineralization of Mantis Shrimps (Stomatopoda: Crustacea) - A Key to Their Fossil Record. Palaios, 12: 420-438. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3515381

Howes G. B., 1890 – Observations on the pectoral finskeleton of the living batoid fishes and of the extinct genus Squaloraja, with the especial reference to the affinities of the same. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, December 1890: 675-688.

Huxley T. H., 1880 – On the application of the laws of evolution to the arrangement of the Vertebrata, and more particularly of the Mammalia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1880: 649-662.

Itano W. M. & Duffin C. J., 2022 – An enigmatic chondrichthyan rostral cartilage from the Carboniferous of North America that resembles that of Squaloraja. In: 16th International Symposium on Early and Lower Vertebrates, Valencia, Spain, 2022. Paredes Aliaga M. V., Manzanares E., Mondéjar Fernández J., Ros-Franch S., Botella H. & Martínez-Pérez C. (eds.). University of Valencia Ichthyolith Issues, Special Publication, 15: 37.

Lamsdell J. C., Teruzzi G., Pasini G. & Garassino A., 2021 – A new limulid (Chelicerata, Xiphosurida) from the Lower Jurassic (Sinemurian) of Osteno, NW Italy. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, 300 (1): 1-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1127/njgpa/2021/0974

Lebedev O. A., Popov E. V., Bagirov S. V., Bolshiyanov I. P., Kadyrov R. I., & Statsenko E. O., 2021 – The earliest chimaeriform fish from the Carboniferous of Central Russia. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 19 (12): 821-846. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2021.1977732

Leigh-Sharpe W. H., 1922 – The comparative morphology of the secondary sexual characters of elasmobranch fishes – the claspers, clasper siphons, and clasper glands. Memoirs III-V. Journal of Morphology, 36: 191-243. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.1050360203

Lund R. & Grogan E. D., 1997 – Relationships of the Chimaeriformes and the basal radiation of the Chondrichthyes. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 7 (1): 65-123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018471324332

Obruchev D. V., 1953 – Izuchenie edestid I raboty A. P. Karpinskogo. [A study of the edestids and the work of A. P. Karpinskii]. Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta Akademii Nauk SSSR [Transactions of the Palaeontological Institute], 45: 1-85 [in Russian].

Page K. N., 2003 – The Lower Jurassic of Europe: its subdivision and correlations. GEUS Bulletin, 1: 23-59. <https://doi.org/10.34194/geusb.v1.4646> DOI: https://doi.org/10.34194/geusb.v1.4646

Patterson C., 1965 – The phylogeny of the chimaeroids. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, 249 (757): 101-219. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1965.0010

Pinna G., 1967 – Découverte d’une nouvelle faune à crustacés du Sinémurien inférieur dans la région du Lac Ceresio (Lombardie, Italie). Atti della Società italiana di Scienze naturali e del Museo civico di Storia naturale in Milano, 106 (3): 183-185.

Pinna G., 1968 – Gli erionidei della nuova fauna sinemuriana a crostacei decapodi di Osteno in Lombardia. Atti della Società italiana di Scienze naturali e del Museo civico di Storia naturale in Milano, 107 (2): 93-134.

Pinna G., 1969 – Due nuovi esemplari di Coleia viallii Pinna, del Sinemuriano di Osteno in Lombardia (Crustacea, Decapoda). Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria, 77: 626-632.

Pinna G., 1985 – Exceptional preservation in the Jurassic of Osteno. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, 311: 171-180. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1985.0149

Reis O. M., 1895 – On the structure of the frontal spine and the rostro-labial cartilages of Squaloraja and Chimaera. Geological Magazine, (4), 2: 385-391. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756800129759

Riley J., 1833a – On a fossil in the Bristol Museum, and discovered in the Lias at Lyme Regis. Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, 1: 483-484.

Riley J., 1833b – On a fossil in the Bristol Museum, and discovered in the Lias at Lyme Regis. The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Third Series, 3 (17): 369.

Sharpe T., 2020 – The Fossil Woman. A Life of Mary Anning. The Dovecote Press, Stanbridge, Wimbourne Minster.

Smith A. B. & Patterson C., 1988 – The influence of Taxonomic Method on the Perception of Patterns of Evolution. In: Evolutionary Biology. Hecht M. K. & Wallace B. (eds.). Plenum Press., New York and London, 23: 127-216. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1043-3_5

Stahl B. J., 1999 – Chondrichthyes III. Holocephali. In: Handbook of Paleoichthyology, 4. Schultze H.-P. (ed.). Verlag Dr. F. Pfeil, München.

Tang C. M., 2002 – Osteno: Jurassic Preservation to the Cellular level. In: Exceptional Fossil Preservation. A Unique View on the Evolution of Marine Life. Bottjer D. J., Etter W., Hagadorn J. W. & Tang C. M. (eds.). Columbia University Press, New York: 251-264.

Taylor M. A. & Torrens H. S., 1987 − Saleswoman to a New Science: Mary Anning and the Fossil Fish Squaloraja from the Lias of Lyme Regis. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 108: 135-148.

Wilby P. R. & Briggs D. E. G., 1997 – Taxonomic trends in the resolution of detail preserved in fossil phosphatized soft tissues. Geobios, 30 (Supplement 1): 493-502. <https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-6995(97)80056-3> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-6995(97)80056-3

Woodward A. S., 1886 – On the anatomy and systematic position of the Liassic selachian, Squaloraja polyspondyla, Agassiz. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1886: 527-538.

Woodward A. S., 1891 – Catalogue of the fossil fishes in the British Museum (Natural History). II. London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.162355

Duffin, C. J., Garassino, A., & Pasini, G. (2023). <i>Squaloraja</i> Riley 1833 (Holocephala: Squalorajidae) from the Lower Jurassic of Osteno Konservat-Lagerstätte (Como, NW Italy). Natural History Sciences, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.4081/nhs.2023.642