Neogene Proto-Caribbean porcupinefishes (Diodontidae)

Abstract

Fossil Diodontidae in Tropical America consist mostly of isolated and fused beak-like jawbones, and tooth plate batteries. These durophagous fishes are powerful shell-crushing predators on shallow water invertebrate faunas from Neogene tropical carbonate bottom, rocky reefs and surrounding flats. We use an ontogenetic series of high-resolution micro CT of fossil and extant species to recognize external and internal morphologic characters of jaws and tooth plate batteries. We compare similar sizes of jaws and/or tooth-plates from both extant and extinct species. Here, we describe three new fossil species including †Chilomycterus exspectatus n. sp. and †Chilomycterus tyleri n. sp. from the late Miocene Gatun Formation in Panama, and †Diodon serratus n. sp. from the middle Miocene Socorro Formation in Venezuela. Fossil Diodontidae review included specimens from the Neogene Basins of the Proto-Caribbean (Brazil: Pirabas Formation; Colombia: Jimol Formation, Panama: Gatun and Tuira formations; Venezuela: Socorro and Cantaure formations). Diodon is present in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, whereas the distribution of Chilomycterus is highly asymmetrical with only one species in the Pacific. It seems that Diodon was as abundant in the Caribbean/Western Atlantic during the Miocene as it is there today. We analyze the paleogeographic distribution of the porcupinefishes group in Tropical America, after the complete exhumation of the Panamanian isthmus during the Pliocene.

Neogene Caribbean elasmobranchs: diversity, paleoecology and paleoenvironmental significance of the Cocinetas Basin assemblage (Guajira Peninsula, Colombia)

“…This region presents extensive and well-exposed sedimentary deposits spanning the last 25 Myr (Moreno et al, 2015). The paleoenvironments are characterized by a transition from shallow marine deposits to a fluvio-deltaic system (Moreno et al, 2015), with a rich fossil record of invertebrates (Hendy et al, 2015) and vertebrates (Aguilera et al, 2013;Aguilera et al, 2017b;Moreno et al, 2015;Cadena and Jaramillo, 2015;Amson et al, 2016;Carrillo-Briceño et al, 2016b;Moreno-Bernal et al, 2016;Pérez et al, 2016). Ages for many of the fossiliferous units in the sequence have been estimated using Sr isotope stratigraphy (see Hendy et al, 2015).…”

Neogene Caribbean elasmobranchs: Diversity, paleoecology and paleoenvironmental significance of the Cocinetas Basin assemblage (Guajira Peninsula, Colombia)

“…The lithology of the Castilletes Formation is characterized by successions of mudstones interbedded with thin beds of biosparites and sandstones, with an estimated thickness of 440 m. The lower contact is conformable with the underlying Jimol Formation and the upper is unconformable (angular contact) with the overlying Ware Formation . The unit was deposited in shallow marine to fluvio-deltaic environments, with abundant marine, fluviolacustrine and terrestrial fossils (e.g., plants, mollusks, crustaceans, fishes, turtles, crocodilians and mammals) (Aguilera et al, 2013(Aguilera et al, , 2017bCadena and Jaramillo, 2015;Hendy et al, 2015;Moreno et al, 2015;Amson et al, 2016;Moreno-Bernal et al, 2016;Aguirre-Fernández et al, 2017). Isotope chronostratigraphy ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) supports an age of 16.2 Ma (range: 16.33-16.07) for the lower section and 15.30 Ma (range: 15.14-15.43) for the middle part of the unit .…”

“…This region presents extensive and well-exposed sedimentary deposits spanning the last 25 Myr . The paleoenvironments are characterized by a transition from shallow marine deposits to a fluvio-deltaic system , with a rich fossil record of invertebrates and vertebrates (Aguilera et al, 2013(Aguilera et al, , 2017bMoreno et al, 2015;Cadena and Jaramillo, 2015;Amson et al, 2016;Carrillo-Briceño et al, 2016b;Moreno-Bernal et al, 2016;Pérez et al, 2016). Ages for many of the fossiliferous units in the sequence have been estimated using Sr isotope stratigraphy (see Hendy et al, 2015).…”

Supplementary material to "Neogene Caribbean elasmobranchs: Diversity, paleoecology and paleoenvironmental significance of the Cocinetas Basin assemblage (Guajira Peninsula, Colombia)"

“…The lithology of the Castilletes Formation is characterized by successions of mudstones interbedded with thin beds of biosparites and sandstones, with an estimated thickness of 440 m. The lower contact is conformable with the underlying Jimol Formation and the upper is unconformable (angular contact) with the overlying Ware Formation (Moreno et al, 2015). The unit was deposited in shallow marine to fluvio-deltaic environments, with abundant marine, fluviolacustrine and terrestrial fossils (e.g., plants, mollusks, crustaceans, fishes, turtles, crocodilians and mammals) (Aguilera et al, 2013(Aguilera et al, , 2017bCadena and Jaramillo, 2015;Hendy et al, 2015;Moreno et al, 2015;Amson et al, 2016;Moreno-Bernal et al, 2016;Aguirre-Fernández et al, 2017 (Moreno et al, 2015).…”

“…This region presents extensive and well-exposed sedimentary deposits spanning the last 25 Myr (Moreno et al, 2015). The paleoenvironments are characterized by a transition from shallow marine deposits to a fluvio-deltaic system (Moreno et al, 2015), with a rich fossil record of invertebrates (Hendy et al, 2015) and vertebrates (Aguilera et al, 2013(Aguilera et al, , 2017bMoreno et al, 2015;Cadena and Jaramillo, 2015;Amson et al, 2016;Carrillo-Briceño et al, 2016b;Moreno-Bernal et al, 2016;Pérez et al, 2016). Ages for many of the fossiliferous units in the sequence have been estimated using Sr isotope stratigraphy (see Hendy et al, 2015).…”