A MARINE VERTEBRATE FAUNA from the EARLY PERMIAN (ARTINSKIAN) LUEDERS FORMATION of NORTH-CENTRAL TEXAS, USA

Abstract

Fossils of the Permian System in Texas have a long history of study for terrestrial and freshwater vertebrate communities. However, vertebrate communities from fully marine ecosystems are comparatively underreported. This sparse spatial record is especially true for marine communities in the Lower Permian, which makes it difficult to adequately illustrate vertebrate life in Early Permian oceans. Better characterization of these communities provides useful context to biotic responses to environmental perturbations of the Early Permian (e.g., biotic reorganizations and climate changes surrounding the Artinskian Warming Event). Here, we describe a faunal survey that consists of 11 vertebrate taxa from the marine portion of the lower Lueders Formation in Shackelford County, Texas (United States) persisting across multiple bone- and tooth-producing carbonate horizons. Chondrichthyans are represented by hybodontiforms (?Acrodus, "Lissodus"), ctenacanthids, neoselachians (Cooleyella), petalodontids (Janassa), holocephalians (Deltodus), and spines such as those of Amelacanthus. Osteichthyan fish remains consist of mostly Platysomids, along with other paleoniscoids. These new reports paint a clearer picture of marine vertebrate ecosystems in North America's Permian Basin and update the paleobiogeography of Early Permian taxa reported elsewhere around the globe.