A new lamniform shark Protolamna ricaurtensis sp. nov. from the Lower Cretaceous of Colombia

Abstract

The Lower Cretaceous record of lamniforms from South America is scarce and poorly known, containing only two reports of isolated teeth from the upper Hauterivian of Argentina and the Albian of Peru. Here, we describe a partial articulated tooth set referable to †Protolamna ricaurtensis sp. nov. from the upper Barremian–lower Aptian deposits of the Paja Formation (Andes of Colombia). The new species corresponds to one of the oldest fossil lamniforms to date reported from South America. This articulated tooth set is the only known for the family †Pseudoscapanorhynchidae, and possibly the oldest in its type for a lamniform from the Lower Cretaceous. Our findings offer new insights in to the lamniform paleodiversity of the northwestern margin of Gondwana during the Lower Cretaceous.
Keywords Mesozoic Barremian Aptian Elasmobranchii South America Andes