Taxonomy and evolution of the Triassic conodont Pseudofurnishius

Abstract

Pseudofurnishius is a late Anisian (Pelsonian)-early Carnian (Cordevolian) conodont genus of gondolellid stock, characteristic for the Sephardic Province and restricted to the "Southern Tethys" region of the northern margin of Gondwana. Its most commonly found species, Pseudofurnishius murcianus, appears at the base of the Ladinian (Fassanian). The Ladinian material of Spain reveals its ontogeny characterised by initial lateral protrusions from the carina that may develop first mono-platform and later bi-platform units, finally evolving into elaborated multi-denticulated forms. The late Anisian-early Carnian phylogenesis of Pseudofurnishius priscus → P. shagami → P. murcianus is proposed. At the end of the Ladinian, Pseudofurnishius expanded to the entire "Southern Tethys" shelf and into Cimmerian terranes that drifted away from northern Gondwana, now accreted to Eurasia, such as the Sibumasu terrane (Southwest China-Malayan Peninsula).