Jurassic neoselachian sharks from the Mt Nerone Pelagic Carbonate Platform (Umbria-Marche Apennine, Italy): a further constrain for the palaeoecology related to PCP systems

Abstract

The Mt Nerone area hosts a Jurassic-Cretaceous Pelagic Carbonate Platform (PCP)-basin succession in the Umbria-Marche Domain (Central Italy). Despite being studied thoroughly on sedimentological and geological aspects, wide-spectrum palaeocological studies are currently missing for this peculiar setting. While several studies on the invertebrate fauna of PCP system are available, the vertebrate fauna remained for a long time mostly unknown. Recently a renewed interest has been directed to vertebrate remains of the region. To date, an articulated dentition and some other tooth fragments of hybodont sharks and neoginglymodian actinopterygians have been described from the Jurassic of the Mt Nerone area. These taxa indicate the existence of diverse durophagous ecological niches available for durophagous fauna in the PCP system, linked to the abundant hard-shelled invertebrate fauna inhabiting the structural highs. In the present contribution we report and describe remains of neoselachians Synechodontiformes from five localities of the Mt Nerone area. The new material, represented by several isolated teeth and referred to as Sphenodus spp., testifies an additional trophic level for the Jurassic palaeoecology in the Umbria-Marche Domain, throwing new light on the peculiar PCP-basin ecosystem.