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Comment on “The vertebrates of the Anisian/Ladinian boundary (Middle Triassic) from Bissendorf (NW Germany) and their contribution to the anatomy, palaeoecology, and palaeobiogeography of the Germanic Basin reptiles” by C. Diedrich [Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 273 (2009) 1–16]
No full textThe Middle Triassic vertebrates are proving to be very important witnesses of the post P/Tr crisis recovery, but also of the palaeobiology and paleogeography. The western Tethys (especially the Monte San Giorgio fossiliferous series) and the Germanic Basin are of particular interest as they show similar vertebrate assemblages in somewhat different environmental patterns and ages. Furthermore, the MSG specimens are usually complete and concentrated in different levels spanning from Late Anisian to Late Ladinian, while vertebrates of the Germanic basin often consist of scattered remains, sometimes gathered in bone-beds.
In the last years Diedrich proposed a number of restorations, concerning both organisms and palaeoenvironment. Very often his work does not consider other Authors’ papers, and a few concepts, such as the supposed ‘anatomic convergence’ between a sauropterigyan reptile and a mammal, appear scientifically unsound. In this comment the author points out some uncertain data and unproven conclusions in Diedrich’s pape
A new species of Saurichthys (Actinopterygii) from the Middle Triassic (Early Ladinian) of the Northern Grigna Mountain (Lombardy, Italy).
No full textA new species of Saurichthys is described. It comes from a fossil-bearing bed lying in the middle-lower part of the Formazione di Buchenstein on the Northern Grigna southern slope (Pasturo, Lecco) of Early Ladinian age. This new species differs from the other several Middle Triassic species in the remarkable dimensions (more than 130 cm in length), in the presence of a grid structure made by the dorsal elements of its vertebral column, and in the posteriorly enlarging endoskeletal elements of both dorsal and anal fins. Moreover, only two longitudinal scale rows distinguish this taxon; together with the grid structure of the dorsal vertebral column, this character was previously observed only in Norian species (Late Triassic). The early appearance of these features in a Ladinian species opens a new, serious discussion on the evolutionary trends of Saurichthys, which is a very important genus, inhabiting the seas and lakes all over the world from the latest Permian to the end of the Triassic
Setting the record straight for fossil flying fishes versus non-flying ones : a comment on Xu et al. (2015)
No full textThe Middle Triassic vertebrate levels in the Western tethys: are fossil fishes useful for biostratigraphy?
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Feeding specialization in Late Triassic fishes
No full textThe ichthyofauna of the Zorzino Limestone represents an important proof of the richness and variety
reached by bony fishes during the Norian and, at the same time, it testifyies the beginning of the faunal
transition which will be realized during the Jurassic. The thousands of specimens and the extraordinary quality
of preservation found in the fossiliferous levels of this unit allowed, in the last years, not only to follow such a
crucial moment in the evolution of vertebrates, but also to reconstruct the mode of life and the trophic
adaptations reached by the different groups, living in the depositional basins. As evidence of this peculiar
evolutionary period, the large predators at the highest trophic levels are still represented by ’primitive’ basal
actinopterygians; on the contrary, the most derived neopterygians specialized in durophagy, a trophic niche
previously almost unexploited by actinopterygians. Within the main trophic categories, anyway, we can find
different morphological specializations, which probably allowed the fishes to exploit most of the available
trophic resources
Thoracopterus Bronn (Osteichthyes: Actinopterygii): a gliding fish from the Upper Triassic of Europe
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