A microvertebrate fauna from the Llandovery of South China

Abstract

The late Llandovery (early Silurian) of South China has yielded a locally abundant and diverse microvertebrate fauna. This includes scales of the little-known mongolepids, sinacanthid spines and a whole host of as yet unassigned forms. The material recovered provides a considerable amount of new information about the diversity of fish in the South Yangtze biome during the early Silurian, and suggests that ichthyoliths have a future role to play in Lower Palaeozoic stratigraphic correlation across China and into Mongolia and Siberia. A new family of mongolepids, the Shiqianolepidae, is erected, accommodating the new genus Shiqianolepiswith the type species S. hollandi. The description of Shiqianolepisenables the identification of a differentiated squamation in mongolepid fish, a feature which has not previously been recognised. Two further taxa, Rongolepis cosmeticagen. et sp. nov. and Chenolepis asketagen. et sp. nov., of, as yet, uncertain affinities are also erected.