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A New Species of the Enigmatic Shark Genus Nanocetorhinus (Chondrichthyes) from the Oligocene of Austria with Palaeoceanographic Implications

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A New Species of the Enigmatic Shark Genus Nanocetorhinus (Chondrichthyes) from the Oligocene of Austria with Palaeoceanographic Implications Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences Vienna 2020 Volume 113/2 229 - 236 DOI: 10.17738/ajes.2020.0014 A new species of the enigmatic shark genus Nanocetorhinus (Chondrichthyes) from the Oligocene of Austria with palaeoceanographic implications Iris FEICHTINGERa*, Jürgen POLLERSPÖCKb and Mathias HARZHAUSERa a Geological-Palaeontological Department, Natural History Museum, Burgring 7, 1010 Vienna, Austria b Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Münchhausenstraße 21, 81247 Munich, Germany; [email protected] *) Corresponding author: [email protected] KEYWORDS Paratethys, Egerian, Elasmobranchii, planktivorous, dermal denticle Abstract Deep-neritic sediments of the Eferding Formation (Egerian, Upper Oligocene) of Upper Austria from the Kamig kaolinite quarry revealed minute teeth of the putatively planktivorous shark genus Nanocetorhinus. This is the oldest unambiguous record of this rarely documented genus, which was known so far only from Miocene deposits of Europe, North America and Japan. Based on previous studies, which showed a positive correlation between sediments of nutrient rich waters and plankton blooms with a majority of ichthyoliths of Keasius and Nanocetorhinus, we argue for a filter-feeding and migratory lifestyle of the latter. Thus, it is supposed that Nanocetorhinus migrated seasonally for foraging, in a similar way to the extant basking shark Cetorhinus maximus. This mode of life and the wide paleogeographic distribution of the open marine genus Nanocetorhinus requires a deep and fully marine connection between the Paratethys and the Proto-Mediterranean Sea during late Oligocene times, which might have been established via the Slovenian Corridor. 1. Introduction more protected eastern margin (Harzhauser and Man- Ichthyoliths of exclusively marine vertebrates are a heri- dic, 2002). The shark assemblages of the Eferding Fm tage of the vanished Paratethys Sea, which evolved have been studied by Schultz (2013) and Feichtinger et during the Eocene and covered most parts of Central al. (2019a, 2019b) documenting 11 species of the orders Europe until it vanished successively from West to East Hexanchiformes, Echinorhiniformes, Lamniformes, during the Late Miocene (Rögl, 1998). Its marine con- Carcharhiniformes, and Rajiformes. In addition, deep nections to the Proto-Mediterranean Sea were strongly marine elasmobranchs of the Paratethys Sea have been controlled by geodynamic events and open connections studied by Underwood and Schlögl (2013), Pollerspöck were a prerequisite for cosmopolitan and migratory elas- and Beaury (2014), Reinecke et al. (2014), Pollerspöck mobranch species. and Straube (2017) and Pollerspöck et al. (2018). These During the late Oligocene, the North-Alpine Foreland studies reveal an unexpected high diversity of bathy- Basin (NAFB) represented a deep, east-west oriented pelagic sharks in the Paratethys. Herein we document a trough constrained between the advancing Alps in the new occurrence of Nanocetorhinus, which was recently south and the stable Bohemian Massif in the north (Rögl, erected by Underwood and Schlögl (2013) from the Malé 1998; Popov et al., 2004). At that time, the marly clay of Karpaty Mountains in Slovakia. the Eferding Fm and the lower Puchkirchen Group were The genus had a wide geographic distribution and deposited in outer neritic to upper bathyal depositional is documented from the lower Miocene (or possible environments (Rupp and Ćorić, 2015; Grunert et al., upper Oligocene) of western Canada (Johns et al., 2005), 2015). Analyses of the calcareous nannoplankton and the middle Miocene of Japan (Nishimatsu and Ujihara, foraminiferal assemblages of the Eferding Fm indicate 2019; Nishimatsu, 2019) and several countries in Europe high nutrient flux, occasional phytoplankton blooms and (Switzerland (Bolliger et al., 1995), Slovakia (Underwood moderately stagnant bottom conditions (Rupp and Ćorić, and Schlögl, 2013), Germany (Pollerspöck and Straube, 2015). The coeval coastal to inner neritic environments 2017; Bracher et al., 2020), and Austria (Pollerspöck are represented by the sandy Linz-Melk Fm (Rupp and et al., 2018)). These tiny, non-functional but morpho- Ćorić, 2015) and its mollusc fauna, which documents agi- logically peculiar teeth (Underwood and Schlögl, 2013), tated coasts along the western escarpment of the Bohe- which possess striking similarities with dermal denticles mian Massif and fringes of mangrove mudflats along the (Johns et al., 2005), are typical for Nanocetorhinus. Such Open Access. © 2020 Iris FEICHTINGER, Jürgen POLLERSPÖCK, Mathias HARZHAUSER, published by Sciendo. 229 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. A new species of the enigmatic shark genus Nanocetorhinus (Chondrichthyes) from the Oligocene of Austria with palaeoceanographic implications tiny and non-functional teeth are presumably indicative sample points in the uppermost level exposed in the for planktivorous sharks (Shimada, 2002; Underwood quarry. The sediment was dried, dissolved in diluted hydro- and Schlögl, 2013; Welton, 2013). Therefore, the occur- gen peroxide and screen washed using a 350 µm mesh rence of such teeth shed by Nanocetorhinus tuberculatus size. For preparing Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Underwood and Schlögl, 2013 in the Paratethys (Bolliger pictures, the teeth were mounted on stubs and coated et al., 1995; Underwood and Schlögl, 2013; Pollerspöck with a gold alloy for photographing with a JEOL JSM Neo- and Straube, 2017; Pollerspöck et al., 2018; Bracher et al., scope at the Geological-Palaeontological Department of 2020), the Mediterranean (Sylvain Adnet pers. comm., the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna. The teeth 2020), and the Pacific (Nishimatsu and Ujihara, 2019; are stored in the NHM Vienna with the following inven- Nishimatsu, 2019) demonstrates a wide geographic dis- tory numbers ranging from NHMW/2019/0165/0029 to tribution of single species, which suggests a migratory NHMW/2019/0165/0031. The new species introduced in lifestyle as also documented for the extant basking shark the present work is registered in ZooBank, together with Cetorhinus maximus (Berrow and Heardman, 1994; Sims the electronic publication LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank.org:- et al., 1997; Sims et al., 2005; Soldo et al., 2008). How- pub:8DCFFA4E-43D2-4A87-B32F-1A4C4C6724E0. ever, a planktivorous lifestyle requires waters with high productivity, which is often correlated with high nutri- 3. Systematic paleontology ent influx and/or upwelling conditions (Behrenfeld and Euselachii Hay, 1902 Boss, 2014; Sims and Quayle, 1998). The seasonal nature Neoselachii Compagno, 1977 of such plankton blooms (Behrenfeld et al., 2013) stimu- Neoselachii incertae sedis lates generally the migratory behavior of grazers (Long- Nanocetorhinus Underwood and Schlögl, 2013 hurst, 2007) and correlates positively with extant bask- ing shark (Sims and Quayle, 1998) or devil ray (Anderson Type species: Nanocetorhinus tuberculatus Underwood et al., 2011) occurrences. and Schlögl, 2013. Early Miocene, Karpatian (late Burdi- In the present study, we report on three teeth of Nano- galian), Slovakia. cetorhinus that are referred to a new species, N. zeitlingeri sp. nov. Furthermore, we discuss regional and palae- Revised genus diagnosis: Teeth minute, rarely exceeding oceanographic implications of this seemingly planktivo- 1 mm in height, with single cusp overlying irregular, bi- or rous shark, which might have lived a migratory lifestyle trilobed root. Weak heterodonty in form of mesio-distally and entered occasionally the Paratethys Sea during sea- compressed symphyseal teeth. Cusp slender, more than sonal plankton blooms. three time as long as wide, straight or faintly curved. Lin- gual cusp face strongly convex, labial cusp face slightly to 1.2 Geographic position and geological setting strongly convex, with very well developed cutting edge, The active Kamig quarry is located at Kriechbaum, north- bearing weak, very irregular serrations. Labial face of cusp east of Allerheiligen im Mühlkreis in Upper Austria (48° smooth or with well developed granulae or irregularly 18’ 21.7’’ N, 14° 36’ 49.3’’ E) (Fig. 1). Continuous mining granulated ridges. Flared collar at base of cusp with finely of kaolinite, which represents the base of the quarry, pitted or granulated ornamentation. Root rather irregular warrants access to the overlying sediments of the lit- with two or three lobes. Basal root face with irregular or toral Linz-Melk Fm and the deep-marine Eferding Fm, incompletely closed foramina, resulting in a single, very which represents an erosional relict of marine sediments large basal foramen. trapped by the northwest to southeast trending Ketten- tal Fault (Krenmayr et al., 2006). The Eferding Fm, which Nanocetorhinus zeitlingeri sp. nov. is exposed in the Kamig quarry, consists of about 20 m LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:D195A973-4473-471D- of dark gray, argillaceous to sandy marls with scattered 8383-AD0C9EAE624C pyrite concretions, fish ichthyoliths, and bivalves. The Figure 2A-F underlying Linz-Melk Fm is represented by uniform, yel- Holotype: NHMW/2019/0165/0030 (Fig 2A-C) low to white sands without any fossils. Based on this suc- Type locality: Kamig quarry, Kriechbaum, Allerheiligen cession, a deepening upward sequence from the basal im Mühlkreis, Upper Austria. Linz-Melk Fm to the deep-marine sediments of the over- Type horizon: Eferding Fm, lower Egerian, Late Chattian, lying Eferding Fm can be reconstructed
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