Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T21:25:33.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Acanthodian and coelacanth fish from the Dinantian of Foulden, Berwickshire, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

P. L. Forey
Affiliation:
Department of Palaeontology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, England.
V. T. Young
Affiliation:
Department of Palaeontology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, England.

Abstract

Acanthodians are represented by numerous young and poorly cranially ossified Acanthodes ovensi White, the earliest known acanthodid. Study of the small A. ovensi together with the type series shows that squamation begins posteriorly, and spreads anteriorly along an initially triangular front, as in A. bridgei Zidek. Gyracanthus sp. occurs at several horizons in the sequence. The coelacanth remains include the first articulated specimen known from Foulden, but preservation only allows an assignment to cf. Rhabdoderma. Although these taxa are distinctive, resemblances to other taxa occur only in generalised features. Hence, unlike the Foulden actinopterygian fish, the acanthodians and coelacanths cannot be used to suggest closer affinities with any other fish of this age, on which information is sparse.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berg, L. S. 1940. Classification of fishes, both Recent and fossil. TR ZOOL INST LENINGRAD, USSR 5, 87517. [In Russian and English).Google Scholar
Clarkson, E. N. K. 1985. Palaeoecology of the Dinantian of Foulden, Berwickshire, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 76, 97100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denison, R. 1978. Acanthodii. In Schultze, H.-P. (ed.) Handbook of Paleoichthyology 5, Stuttgart: Fischer.Google Scholar
Forey, P. L. 1981. The coelacanth Rhabdoderma in the Carboniferous of the British Isles. PALAEONTOLOGY 24, 203–29.Google Scholar
Francis, E. H. 1983. Carboniferous. In Craig, G. Y. (ed.) Geology of Scotland 2nd edn, 253–96. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gardiner, B. G. 1985. Actinopterygian fish from the Dinantian of Foulden, Berwickshire, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 76, 61–6.Google Scholar
Hecht, T. 1978. A descriptive systematic study of the otoliths of the neopterygian marine fishes of South Africa, Part 1. Introduction. TRANS R SOC S AFR 43, 191–7.Google Scholar
Heyler, D. 1969. Vertébrés de l'Autunien de France. CAH PALEONTOL 1969, 1255.Google Scholar
Miles, R. S. 1966. The acanthodian fishes of the Devonian Plattenkalk of the Paffrath Trough in the Rhineland, with an appendix containing a classification of the Acanthodii and a revision of the genus Homalacanthus. ARK ZOOL (2) 18, 147–94.Google Scholar
Miles, R. S. 1970. Remarks on the vertebral column and caudal fin of acanthodian fishes. LETHAIA 3, 343–62.Google Scholar
Miles, R. S. 1973. Relationships of acanthodians. In Greenwood, P. H., Miles, R. S. & Patterson, C. (eds) Interrelationships of Fishes, 63103. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Moy-Thomas, J. A. 1937. The Carboniferous coelacanth fishes of Great Britain and Ireland. PROC ZOOL SOC LONDON (B) 107, 383415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ørvig, T. 1972. The latero-sensory component of the dermal skeleton in lower vertebrates and its phyletic significance. ZOOL SCR 1, 139–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultze, H.-P. 1973. Crossopterygier mit heterozerker Schwanz flosse aus dem Oberdevon Kanadas, nebst einer beschreibung von Onychodontida-resten aus dem Mitteldevon Spaniens und aus dem Karbon der USA. PALAEONTOGRAPHICA (A) 143, 188208.Google Scholar
Stensiö, E. A. 1937. On the Devonian coelacanthids of Germany with special reference to the dermal skeleton. K SVEN VETENSK AKAD HANDL 16, 156.Google Scholar
White, E. I. 1927. The fish-fauna of the Cementstones of Foulden, Berwickshire. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 55, 255–87.Google Scholar
Wood, S. P. & Rolfe, W. D. I. 1985. Introduction to the palaeontology of the Dinantian of Foulden, Berwickshire, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 76, 16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zidek, J. 1975. Oklahoma paleoichthyology. Part IV: Acanthodii. OKLAHOMA GEOL NOTES 35 (4), 135–46.Google Scholar
Zidek, J. 1976. Kansas Hamilton Quarry (Upper Pennsylvanian) Acanthodes, with remarks on the previously reported North American occurrences of the genus. PALEONTOL CONTRIB UNIV KANS 83, 141.Google Scholar