Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T02:36:03.863Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New tetrapodomorph vertebrates from the Yam-Tesovo locality (Amata Regional Stage, Middle–Upper Devonian) of Leningrad Region, northwestern Russia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2019

Oleg A. LEBEDEV  and
Gaël CLÉMENT
Oleg A. LEBEDEV*
Affiliation:
Borissiak Palaeontological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, 123 Profsoyuznaya Street, Moscow 117997, Russia. Email: olebed@paleo.ru
Gaël CLÉMENT
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherche sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements (MNHN–Sorbonne Université–Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, 57 rue Cuvier, CP38, 75231 Paris cedex 05, France. Email: gael.clement@mnhn.fr
*
*Corresponding author
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Each piece of data is valuable for unearthing the earliest history of tetrapod origin. Despite frequently incomplete preservation, each skeletal element provides important information on the morphology, phylogeny and faunistic diversity of early tetrapodomorphs. We describe here new and earlier collected material from the fossil vertebrate site Yam-Tesovo on the Oredezh River (Leningrad Region, northwestern Russia) in the deposits of the Yam-Tesovo Formation within the Amata Regional Stage (?lowermost Frasnian, Upper Devonian). Upon similarity of their dermal ornamentation, two mandibular fragments are suggested to belong to the new tetrapodomorph taxon Rubrognathuskuleshovi n. gen. et sp. This species demonstrates a general ‘elpistostegalian' morphological pattern with some early tetrapod characters. The new taxon is characterised by an almost closed intercoronoid fossa, a prearticular that is strongly convex in section and bearing small teeth along its dorsal margin, low vertical coronoid laminae and coronoid fangs that enter the coronoid tooth row. The mandibular canal runs partly in open groove or opens to the surface by a row of large pores. The dermal ornament consists of a network of small ridges forming tubercles in the nodes. The postfrontal assigned to Tetrapodomorpha shows a ‘tetrapod-like' pits-and-ridges sculpturing and a supraorbital ridge characteristic of early tetrapods as well as ‘elpistostegalians'. Its long posterolateral bone margin demonstrates a lateral projection similar to that in Tiktaalik and unknown in other ‘elpistostegalians' and early tetrapods. An unusually flattened vomer is doubtfully related to the tetrapodomorph genus Livoniana Ahlberg, Lukševičs & Mark-Kurik, 2000, based upon characteristic multiple tooth rows. Teeth in rows decrease labially and show no clearly enlarged fang pairs. New finds of the last two decades present the earliest records of some tetrapod characters in non-limbed tetrapodomorphs. This challenges previous hypotheses on the origin of tetrapods.

Keywords

Elpistostegaliafish–tetrapod transitionmandiblemandibular sensory canalpostfrontalprearticularprecoronoid fossaRubrognathus kuleshovitetrapodavomer
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 109 , Issue 1-2: Fossils, Function and Phylogeny: Papers on Early Vertebrate Evolution in Honour of Professor Jennifer A. Clack , March 2018 , pp. 61 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2019 

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

7. References

Ahlberg, P. E. 1995. Elginerpeton pancheni and the earliest tetrapod clade. Nature 373, 420–424.Google Scholar
Ahlberg, P. E., Lukševičs, E. & Lebedev, O. A. 1994. The first tetrapod finds from the Devonian (Upper Famennian) of Latvia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: B 343, 303–328.Google Scholar
Ahlberg, P. E., Lukševičs, E. & Mark-Kurik, E. 2000. A near-tetrapod from the Baltic Middle Devonian. Palaeontology 43, 533–548.Google Scholar
Ahlberg, P. E. & Clack, J. A. 1998. Lower jaws, lower tetrapods – a review based on the Devonian genus Acanthostega. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 89, 11–46.Google Scholar
Borgen, U. & Nakrem, H. A. 2017. Morphology, phylogeny and taxonomy of osteolepiform fish. Fossils and Strata 61, 1–514.Google Scholar
Clack, J. A. 2002. Gaining ground: the origin and evolution of tetrapods. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. 369 pp.Google Scholar
Clack, J. A. 2003. A revised reconstruction of the dermal skull roof of Acanthostega gunnari, an early tetrapod from the Late Devonian. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 93, 163–165.Google Scholar
Clack, J. A., Ahlberg, P. E., Blom, H. & Finney, S. M. 2012. A new genus of Devonian tetrapod from north-east Greenland, with new information on the lower jaw of Ichthyostega. Palaeontology 55, 73–86.Google Scholar
Clément, G. & Lebedev, O. 2014. Revision of the early tetrapod Obruchevichthys Vorobyeva, 1977 from the Frasnian (Upper Devonian) of the north-western East European Platform. Paleontological Journal 48, 1082–1091.Google Scholar
Daeschler, E. B., Shubin, N. H. & Jenkins, F. A. 2006. A Devonian tetrapod-like fish and the evolution of the tetrapod body plan. Nature 440, 757–763.Google Scholar
Esin, D., Ginter, M., Ivanov, A., Lebedev, O., Luksevics, E., Avkhimovich, V., Golubtsov, V. & Petukhova, L. 2000. Vertebrate correlation of the Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous on the East European Platform. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 223, 341–359.Google Scholar
Glinskiy, V. N. 2013. The assemblages of Middle Devonian psammosteid agnathans from the eastern part of Main Devonian Field. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo Universiteta Ser. 7 4, 62–71. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Gross, W. 1941. Über den Unterkiefer einiger devonischer Crossopterygier. Abhandlungen der preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse 1941, 3–51.Google Scholar
Ivanov, A., Zhuravlev, A., Stinkulis, G., Evdokimova, I., Dronov, A., Sokiran, E., Shishlov, S., Broushkin, A. & Myshkina, N. 2005. Devonian sections of north-west of East European Platform. 6th Baltic Stratigraphic Conference, IGCP 491 Meeting, St Petersburg, Russia, 23–28 August 2005. Guidebook of the Post-Conference Field Trip, 66 p. St Petersburg: University Publishing House.Google Scholar
Ivanov, A. O. & Lebedev, O. A. 2011. Vertebrate localities in the Luga River basin (Leningrad Region, Russia). Guidebook for the field trip. St Petersburg: Department of Palaeontology, Geological Faculty, St Petersburg University. 37 pp.Google Scholar
Jarvik, E. 1944. On the dermal bones, sensory canals and pit-lines of the skull in Eusthenopteron foordi Whiteaves, with some remarks on E. saevesoederberghi jarvik. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar 21, 3–48.Google Scholar
Jarvik, E. 1952. On the fish-like tail in the ichthyostegid stegocephalians with description of a new stegocephalian and a new crossopterygian from the Upper Devonian of East Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland 114, 5–90.Google Scholar
Jarvik, E. 1996. The Devonian tetrapod Ichthyostega. Fossils and Strata 40, 1–213.Google Scholar
Kuršs, V. 1992. Devonskoye terrigennoye osadkonakopleniye na Glavnom devonskom pole [Devonian Terrigenous Sedimentation on the Main Devonian Field]. Riga: Zinatne. 208 pp. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Lebedev, O. A. 2004. A new tetrapod Jakubsonia livnensis from the Early Famennian (Devonian) of Russia and palaeoecological remarks on the Late Devonian tetrapod habitats. Acta Universitatis Latviensis 679, 79–98.Google Scholar
Lebedev, O. A. & Clack, J. A. 1993. Upper Devonian tetrapods from Andreyevka, Tula Region, Russia. Palaeontology 36, 721–734.Google Scholar
Lukševičs, E. 2001. Bothriolepid antiarchs (Vertebrata, Placodermi) from the Devonian of the north-western part of the East European Platform. Geodiversitas 23, 489–609.Google Scholar
Lukševičs, E., Stinkulis, Ģ., Ivanov, A. & Tirzmale, D. 2018. The Borschovo section of the Gauja and Amata regional stages (Leningrad Region, Russia): sedimentology and biostratigraphy. Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences 67, 21–32.Google Scholar
Mark-Kurik, E. 1981. Pt. II. Palaeontological criteria for the subdivision of the Devonian. Middle Devonian. In Sorokin, V. S. (ed.) Devon i karbon pribaltiki [Devonian and Carboniferous of the Baltics], 368–370. Riga: Zinatne. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Mark-Kurik, E. 2000. The Middle Devonian fishes from the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia) and Belarus. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 223, 309–324.Google Scholar
Rzhonsnitskaya, M. A. & Kulikova, V. F. (eds). 1990. Reshenie mezhvedomstvennogo regional'nogo stratigraficheskogo soveschaniya po srednemu i verhnemu paleozoyu Russkoy platformy (Leningrad, 1988 g.). Devonskaya sistema [Decision of the interdepartmental regional stratigraphical meeting on the middle and late Palaeozoic of the Russian platform (Leningrad, 1988). Devonian system], 3–60. Leningrad: Interdepartmental Stratigraphical committee of USSR. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Schultze, H.-P. 1974. Osteolepidide Rhipidistia (Pisces) aus dem Pennsylvanian von Illinois/USA. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 146, 29–50.Google Scholar
Schultze, H.-P. 1996. The elpistostegid fish Elpistostege, the closest the Miguasha fauna comes to a tetrapod. In Schultze, H.-P. & Cloutier, R. (eds) Devonian fishes and plants of Miguasha, Quebec, Canada, 316–327. München: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil.Google Scholar
Schultze, H.-P. & Arsenault, M. 1985. The panderichthyid fish Elpistostege: a close relative of tetrapods? Palaeontology 28, 293–309.Google Scholar
Schultze, H.-P. & Cloutier, R. 1996. Comparison of the Escuminac Formation ichthyofauna with other late Givetian/early Frasnian ichthyofaunas. In Schultze, H.-P. & Cloutier, R. (eds) Devonian fishes and plants of Miguasha, Quebec, Canada, 348–368. München: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil.Google Scholar
Verbitsky, V. R. & Vasilyeva, O. V. 2012. Devonian system. In Verbitsky, V. R., Verbitsky, I. V., Vasilyeva, O. V. & Savanin, V. V. (eds) Gosudarstvennaya geologicheskaya karta Rossiyskoy Federatsii. Masshtab 1:1000000 (tretye izdaniye). Seriya tsentral'noevropeyskaya. Listy O-35-Pskov, (N-35), O-36-St. Petersburg. Ob'asnitel'naya zapiska [State geological map of the Russian Federation. Scale 1:1000000 (third generation). Series central European. Sheets O-35-pskov, (N-35), O-36-St. Petersburg. Explanatory note], 79–109. St Petersburg: VSEGEI. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Vorobyeva, E. I. 1962. Rhizodont crossopterygian fishes of the Main Devonian field of USSR. Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta Academii Nauk SSSR 94, 1–139. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Vorobyeva, E. I. 1977. Morphology and nature of evolution of crossopterygian fishes. Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta Academii Nauk SSSR 163, 1–239. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Vorobyeva, E. I. 1992. Problema proiskhozhdeniya nazemnykh pozvonochnykh [Problem of the origin of terrestrial vertebrates], 3–344. Moscow: Nauka. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Vorobyeva, E. I. 2004. Podklass Crossopterygii [Subclass Crossopterygii]. In Novitskaya, L. I. & Afanassieva, O. B. (eds) Iskopayemiye pozvonochniye Rossii i sopredel'nykh stran. Beschelyustniye i drevniye ryby [Fossil vertebrates of Russia and adjacent countries: agnathans and early fishes], 272–372. Moscow: GEOS. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Vorobyeva, E. I. & Lyarskaya, L. A. 1968. Remains of crossopterygians and dipnoans from Amata beds of Latvia and their burial. In Obruchev, D. V. (ed.) Ocherki po sistematike i filogenii drevnikh ryb i bezcheliustnykh [Essays on systematics and phylogeny of early fishes and agnathans], 71–86. Nauka: Moscow. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Vorobyeva, E. I. & Schultze, H.-P. 1991. Description and systematics of panderichthyid fishes with comments on their relationships to tetrapods. In Schultze, H.-P. & Trueb, L. (eds) Origins of the higher groups of tetrapods, 68–109. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates.Google Scholar