Morphology, Phylogeny and Paleobiogeography of Fossil Fishes

AHLBERG, Per E., Subdepartment of Evolution and Development, Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. ARRATIA, Gloria, Biodiversity Center, University of Kansas, Dyche Hall, Lawrence, Kansas, USA. ARSENAULT, Marius, Carleton-sur-Mer, Québec, Canada. BARWICK, Richard E., Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. BLIECK, Alain R. M., Université Lille 1: UFR Sciences de la Terre, FRE 3298 du CNRS ' Géosystèmes ', Villeneuve d’Ascq, France. BLOM, Henning, Subdepartment of Evolution and Development, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. BURROW, Carole J., School of Integrative Biology, University of Queensland, Queensland, and Queensland Museum, Geology & Palaeontology, Hendra, Queensland, Australia. CAMPBELL, K. S. W., Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. CARR, Robert K., Department of Biological Sciences, Irvine Hall, Ohio University, Athens, USA. de CARVALHO, Marcelo R., Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. CLÉMENT, Gaël, Subdepartment of Evolutionary Organismal Biology, Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, and Département Histoire de la Terre, Centre de Recherche sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France. COATES, Michael I., Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. DESBIENS, Sylvain, Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec, Canada. EKRT, Boris, Department of Paleontology, National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic. ELLIOTT, David K., Dept. of Geology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, USA. FOREY, Peter L., Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London, England. FRIEDMAN, Matt, Committee on Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK GINTER, Michał, University of Warsaw, Institute of Geology, Warszawa, Poland. HANKE, Gavin F., Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. HILTON, Eric J., Department of Fisheries Science, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, Gloucester Point, VA, USA. JACKSON, Gary L., Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, USA. JANVIER, Philippe, Département Histoire de la Terre, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. LELIÈVRE, Hervé, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Départment Histoire de la Terre, Paléobiodiversité et Paléoenvironnements, Paris, France. LONG, John A., Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA. MÄRSS, Tiiu, Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia. MAISEY, John G., Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA. MARK-KURIK, Elga, Institute of Geology, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia. MIAO, Desui, Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA. SENDEN, Tim J., Dept. of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physis and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra. SÜDKAMP, Wouter H., Bundenbach, Germany. THOMAS, Bethia, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford, England. THOMSON, Keith S., Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford, England. TURNER, Susan, School of Geosciences, Monash University, Victoria, and Queensland Museum, Geology & Palaeontology, Hendra, Queensland, Australia. WANG, Wei, Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. WANG, Xiaolin, Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. WILSON, Mark V. H., Department of Biological Sciences and Laboratory for Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. YOUNG, Gavin C., Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. YU, Xiaobo, Department of Biological Sciences, Kean University, Union, NJ, USA. ZHANG, Jiangyong, Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. ZHOU, Zhonghe, Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. ZHU, Min, Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Henry GEE: Foreword 7
Preface 9-10
Acknowledgements 10
Desui MIAO: Ode to an unbreakable spirit Chang Meemann s contributions to paleoichthyology 11-23
David K. ELLIOTT and Alain R. M. BLIECK: A new ctenaspid (Agnatha, Heterostraci) from the Early Devonian of Nevada, with comments on taxonomy, paleobiology and paleobiogeography 25-38
Marius ARSENAULT and Philippe JANVIER: Is there a spiral intestine in the anaspid-like jawless vertebrate Endeiolepis aneri Stensiö, 1939, from the Upper Devonian Escuminac Formation of Miguasha, Quebec, Canada? 39-43
Henning BLOM and Tiiu MÄRSS: The interrelationships and evolutionary history of anaspids 45-58
Carole J. BURROW, Sylvain DESBIENS, Boris EKRT and Wouter H. SÜDKAMP: A new look at Machaeracanthus 59-84
Gavin C. YOUNG: A new antiarch (placoderm fish: Devonian) from the south coast of New South Wales, Australia 85-100
Elga MARK-KURIK: Dolganosteus, a new Early Devonian rhenanid (Placodermi) from northern Siberia 101-106
Robert K. CARR, Hervé LELIÈVRE and Gary L. JACKSON: The ancestral morphotype for the gnathostome pectoral fin revisited and the placoderm condition 107-122
Carole J. BURROW and Susan TURNER: Reassessment of Protodus scoticus from the Early Devonian of Scotland 123-144
Micha GINTER: Teeth of Late Famennian ctenacanth sharks from the Cleveland Shale 145-158
Gavin F. HANKE and Mark V. H. WILSON: The putative stem-group chondrichthyans Kathemacanthus and Seretolepis from the Lower Devonian MOTH locality, Mackenzie Mountains, Canada 159-182
Marcelo R. de CARVALHO: Morphology and phylogenetic relationships of the giant electric ray from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, Italy (Chondrichthyes: Torpediniformes) 183-198
Min ZHU, Wei WANG and Xiaobo YU: Meemannia eos, a basal sarcopterygian fish from the Lower Devonian of China expanded description and significance 199-214
Peter L. FOREY and Eric J. HILTON: Two new Tertiary osteoglossid fishes (Teleostei: Osteoglossomorpha) with notes on the history of the family 215-246
Gloria ARRATIA: Critical analysis of the impact of fossils on teleostean phylogenies, especially that of basal teleosts 247-274
John A. LONG: New holodontid lungfishes from the Upper Devonian Gogo Formation of Western Australia 275-298
Matt FRIEDMAN: Postcranial evolution in early lungfishes (Dipnoi: Sarcopterygii): new insights from Soederberghia groenlandica 299-324
K. S. W. CAMPBELL, Richard E. BARWICK and Tim J. SENDEN: Perforations and tubules in the snout region of Devonian dipnoans 325-361
Gaël CLÉMENT and Per E. AHLBERG: The endocranial anatomy of the early sarcopterygian Powichthys from Spitsbergen, based on CT scanning 363-377
Keith S. THOMSON, Xiaobo YU and Bethia THOMAS: New information on the ethmosphenoid of Eusthenopteron foordi (Devonian: Sarcopterygii, Osteolepiformes, Tristichopteridae), with special reference to the choana 379-388
Michael I. COATES and Matt FRIEDMAN: Litoptychus bryanti and characteristics of stem tetrapod neurocrania 389-416
Zhonghe ZHOU, Jiangyong ZHANG and Xiaolin WANG: The Jehol fish fauna: ecological interaction and paleogeographic distribution 417-429
Philippe JANVIER and John G. MAISEY: The Devonian vertebrates of South America and their biogeographical relationships 431-459

This book presents recent findings on the morphology, phylogeny and paleobiogeography of fossil fishes, honoring Professor Meemann Chang for her contributions to paleoichthyology and to the study of early vertebrate evolution. The seeds for this book started to germinate when a symposium honoring Meemann Chang was held at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in Mesa, Arizona. However, they had been planted long before as all of us, editors and contributors alike, can recount instances in which contact with Meemann had an effect on our early professional and personal development. This aspect of Meemann was brought into focus by Nature, which carried a report on her career based on interviews with her colleagues and former students attending the symposium (Dalton, 2006). With a foreword by Dr. Henry Gee (Senior Science Editor of Nature), an introduction, 22 research papers by leading vertebrate paleontologists from 14 countries, and 220 photos and illustrations, this book covers important fossil forms ranging from the Paleozoic to the Cenozoic and reflects research advances based on traditional paleontological methods as well as new techniques such as CT scanning. The contributions came from almost all the major researchers in the study of early vertebrates, especially those working on Paleozoic and Mesozoic fishes, and cover all the major fossil fish groups studied by Meemann during her career, while reporting on new developments in each of these fields. Agnathans have not been a major focus of Meemann’s research but her paper on a lamprey from the Jehol biota (Chang et al., 2006) was an important addition to our knowledge of a rarely preserved group. In this book, papers on anaspids and anaspid-like agnathans show that these animals may have had a spiral intestine similar to that of gnathostomes, and a new heterostracan from the western U.S. is named after her (the first of two such honors in this book). A paper on the enigmatic acanthodian Machaeracanthus shows it to have been an acanthodian with ‘paired pairs’ of pectoral fin spines and a perichondrally ossified scapulocoracoid, an important step forward in our understanding of this taxon. The contributions on placoderms include descriptive studies on new forms from northern Siberia and western Australia and also a review of pectoral fin development in gnathostomes based on a revision of previous hypotheses and new fossil arthrodire material. Chondrichthyans are represented by several papers describing new material but particularly by an important study on new articulated material from the Early Devonian of the Northwest Territories showing that the scale- and spine-based distinctions between acanthodians and chondrichthyans do not account for the diversity that is now apparent. The section on osteichthyans is extensive as might be expected since this is the main area that Meemann has worked on during her career. The first paper in this section describes how the appropriately named sarcopterygian Meemannia eos shows features of the odontodes that are shared between stem-group sarcopterygians, basal actinopterygians, and stem-group osteichthyans. Much new information on the neurocranium of fossil fishes has been developed in recent years using CT scanning and CT studies of the snout of Devonian dipnoans and the neurocranium of Powichthys provide new morphological and phylogenetic information. In addition, a study of the neurocranium of Litoptychius adds to information on sarcopterygian phylogeny and results in a clearer understanding of stem-tetrapod phylogeny, while new and uncrushed material of Eusthenopteron enables a revision of the morphology of the ethmosphenoid region. Lungfish are covered in three papers, and a study of fin morphology indicates that the postcranial anatomy may be an underexploited source of characters for phylogenetic studies in this group. The role of fossils in the development of an understanding of phylogenetic relationships is also examined here using the example of teleost phylogenies and it is concluded that despite the wealth of information from modern fish, fossils – particularly those of stem members from monophyletic groups – do have an important role to play. Finally Meemann’s interest in paleoecology and paleogeography is represented by two papers. The first, on the Jehol Biota, shows that the fish fauna, somewhat overshadowed by the remarkable dinosaur record, does have important paleobiogeographic implications with endemic forms indicating isolation until the Late Cretaceous when a dispersal to North America is hypothesized. The second paper is a very important overview of the Devonian vertebrate record in South America, something that has been very much needed. This demonstrates the presence of two faunal assemblages of which the earlier one equates with the “Malvinokaffric Realm” based on invertebrate communities. This book is a tribute to the tenacity and dedication that Meemann Chang has shown to paleoichthyology and the widespread influence she has had on the field and the researchers involved in it.