Jurassic neoselachian sharks from the Mt Nerone Pelagic Carbonate Platform (Umbria-Marche Apennine, Italy): a further constrain for the palaeoecology related to PCP systems

ABSTRACT

The Mt Nerone area hosts a Jurassic-Cretaceous Pelagic Carbonate Platform (PCP)-basin succession in the Umbria-Marche Domain (Central Italy). Despite being studied thoroughly on sedimentological and geological aspects, wide-spectrum palaeocological studies are currently missing for this peculiar setting. While several studies on the invertebrate fauna of PCP system are available, the vertebrate fauna remained for a long time mostly unknown. Recently a renewed interest has been directed to vertebrate remains of the region. To date, an articulated dentition and some other tooth fragments of hybodont sharks and neoginglymodian actinopterygians have been described from the Jurassic of the Mt Nerone area. These taxa indicate the existence of diverse durophagous ecological niches available for durophagous fauna in the PCP system, linked to the abundant hard-shelled invertebrate fauna inhabiting the structural highs. In the present contribution we report and describe remains of neoselachians Synechodontiformes from five localities of the Mt Nerone area. The new material, represented by several isolated teeth and referred to as Sphenodus spp., testifies an additional trophic level for the Jurassic palaeoecology in the Umbria-Marche Domain, throwing new light on the peculiar PCP-basin ecosystem.

KEYWORDS:

• Orthacodontidae
• palaeoecology
• Sphenodus
• Umbria‐Marche‐Sabina Domain
• Bugarone group

Acknowledgments

Our friends Valerio Cucchiarini and the whole staff of ‘Cooperativa La Macina Ambiente’ are warmly thanked for the constant support, logistics and, last but not least, the days we spent together in Cantiano, Piobbico and Apecchio. Domenico Bei is thanked for kindly allowing us access to the collection stored at ‘Museo dei Fossili e dei Minerali del Monte Nerone’ of Apecchio (PU, Central Italy). Gilles Cuny and Charles Underwood are sincerely thanked for their advising in the identification of the specimens. Jürgen Kriwet, three anonymous reviewers and the Editor in Chief Gareth Dyke are acknowledged for providing suggestions that improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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