Middle Eocene chondrichthyan fauna from Antarctic Peninsula housed in the Museo de La Plata, Argentina

Abstract

In recent years, the taxonomy and systematics of the cartilaginous fish taxa from the Eocene La Meseta Formation of Seymour (Marambio) Island, Antarctica have been extensively discussed in a series of papers, resulting in a complete revision of the Antarctic Eocene ichthyofauna housed in the Vertebrate Paleontology collection of the Museo de La Plata, Argentina. This collection constitutes one of the largest and taxonomically most diverse in the world, with approximately 20000 specimens, which provides a solid database used for the analysis of qualitative and quantitative chondrichthyan taxonomic composition. The information provided herein might be useful to understand the sudden decline in chondrichthyan taxonomic diversity towards the top of La Meseta Formation as well as its potential relationship with environmental changes during the Eocene.