A new antiarch placoderm from the Emsian (Early Devonian) of Wuding, Yunnan, China

Abstract

Pan, Z., Zhu, M., Zhu, Y. & Jia, L., August 2017. A new antiarch placoderm from the Emsian (Early Devonian) of Wuding, Yunnan, China. Alcheringa 42, 10–21. ISSN 0311-5518.

Wufengshania magniforaminis, a new genus and species of the Euantiarcha (Placodermi: Antiarcha), is described from the late Emsian (Early Devonian) of Wuding, Yunnan, southwestern China. The referred specimens were three-dimensionally preserved in black shales, allowing a high-resolution computed tomography reconstruction of anatomical details. The new euantiarch is characterized by a large orbital fenestra, an arched exoskeletal band around the orbital fenestra and a developed obtected nuchal area of the skull roof. Maximum parsimony analysis, using a revised data-set of antiarchs with 44 taxa and 66 characters, resolves Wufengshania gen. nov. as a member of the Bothriolepididae, which is characterized by the presence of the infraorbital sensory canal diverging on the lateral plate, and the nuchal plate with orbital facets. New analysis supports a sister group relationship between Dianolepis and the Bothriolepididae. Luquanolepis, a coeval euantiarch from the neighboring site of the new form, is referred to the Asterolepidoidei and represents the basalmost and earliest member of the Asterolepidoidei.

Zhaohui Pan* [[email protected]], Min Zhu* [[email protected]], You’an Zhu^† [[email protected]] and Liantao Jia [[email protected]] Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 643, Beijing 100044, PR China. *Also affiliated with University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, PR China. ^†Also affiliated with Uppsala University, PO Box 256, 751 05 Uppsala, Sweden.

Key words:

• Antiarcha
• Placodermi
• Early Devonian
• HRCT scanning
• morphology

Acknowledgements

We thank W. J. Zhao, Z. K. Gai and Y. J. Wang, for discussions, and Y. M. Hou, for HRCT scanning.