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Hybodont sharks from the Middle Jurassic of the Inner Hebrides, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2007

Jan Rees
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Karlstad University, SE-651 88 Karlstad, Sweden. E-mail: jan.rees@kau.se
Charlie J. Underwood
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK. E-mail: c.underwood@bbk.ac.uk

Abstract

Non-marine Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) strata on the Isles of Eigg and Skye in Scotland have yielded fossil remains of eight hybodont shark taxa. Faunas from several horizons within the Lealt Shale and Valtos Formation on the Isle of Eigg include six species: Hybodus grossiconus, Hybodus sp. 1, Hybodus sp. 2, Lissodus leiodus, L. leiopleurus and Parvodus pattersoni. Large collections of teeth of L. leiodus and L. leiopleurus enable a better understanding of the dentitional patterns of the two species and their differential diagnosis. Surface-collecting from exposures of the Kilmalaug Formation on the Isle of Skye yielded hybodont teeth of two taxa: Hybodus sp. 3 and Acrodus caledonicus sp. nov. The occurrence of Acrodus in the Bathonian of Scotland is one of the youngest known occurrences of this genus, and the only non-marine record in the European Jurassic. Collectively, the hybodont assemblages from the Scottish Bathonian provide evidence that non-marine faunas of the group were specifically diverse in the Middle Jurassic.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Royal Society of Edinburgh 2005

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