A new selenosteid arthrodire (‘Placodermi’) from the Late Devonian of Morocco

Abstract

ABSTRACT—A new genus and species of selenosteid arthrodire is described from the Late Devonian of Morocco. Driscollaspis pankowskiorum, gen. nov. sp. nov., is defined as a selenosteid with a shallow preorbital plate embayment of the central plate, a paranuchal plate embayment of the central plate as a deep embayment determined by the lateral and posterior lobe, a central plate expanded at the contact with the pineal plate as transverse anterior border, and a suborbital plate overlapping the postorbital plate. The dermal ornamentation is tubercular, forming patches of reticular ridges clustered around sensory-line canal junctions in plate centers. The sensory-line canals are distinctly raised just above the level of the dermal ornamentation, a unique character not previously recognized in any arthrodire but seen in some ptyctodontids. A new phylogenetic hypothesis supports the monophyly of the Selenosteidae within which this new taxon is resolved, but emphasizes also unresolved relationships among aspinothoracid arthrodires. The paleogeographic distribution of the Frasnian vertebrates from Morocco and especially the seleonsteids on the western margin of Gondwana and Laurussia are discussed, and the indication for a contact of both continents during the late Frasnian is emphasized.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D0287127-C713-4BB1-9A27-242679041C22

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVP

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We sincerely thank M. Pankowski and his family for all the effort, energy, and enthusiasm chasing up the fossil on the Web and securing it for science. This effort is very much appreciated, as well as the donation of the fossil to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. We also thank staff at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County for assistance in studying the specimen: G. Takeuchi for preparation, H. Thomas and R. Feeney for radiography. We thank R. Carr, M. Zhu, and an anonymous reviewer for their suggestions improving the manuscript. J.L. and K.T. acknowledge support of Australian Research Council grant DP0772138. M.R. acknowledges support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the European Union, Marie Curie Actions FP7 MC-IEF, and ERC grant to M. Brazeau from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement number 311092.