Exceptionally Preserved Conodont Natural Assemblages from the Middle Triassic Luoping Biota,Yunnan Province,China:Implications for Architecture of Conodont Feeding Apparatus  

作　　者：Jinyuan Huang Carlos Martinez-Perez Qiyue Zhang Kexin Zhang Mao Luo Wen Wen Changyong Zhou Xiao Min Zhixin Ma Tao Xie Michael J.Benton Philip C.J.Donoghue 

机构地区：[1]Chengdu Center,China Geological Survey(Geosciences Innovation Center of Southwest China),Chengdu 610081,China [2]Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity&Evolutionary Biology,University of Valencia,46980 Valencia,Spain [3]Institute of Geological Survey,China University of Geosciences,Wuhan 430074,China [4]State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy,Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Nanjing 210008,China [5]School of Earth Sciences and Engineering,Nanjing University,Nanjing 210023,China [6]School of Ocean Sciences,China University of Geosciences,Beijing 100083,China [7]School of Earth Sciences,University of Bristol,Bristol BS81TQ,UK

出　　处：《Journal of Earth Science》2023年第6期1762-1776,共15页地球科学学刊（英文版）

基　　金：financially supported by the China Geological Survey (Nos. DD20230219, DD20221635-004, DD20190054);the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42272030, 41502013, 41772022, 41661134047);the Project of the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (No. PID2020-117373GA-I00) to Carlos Martínez-Pérez.

摘　　要：Articulated natural assemblages contain direct evidence of the element numbers,morphologies,positions and structures for reconstructing the feeding apparatuses of conodont animals,but these kind of materials are very rare in fossil records.Here we report ten new conodont natural assemblages from Member II of the Guanling Formation in Luoping County,eastern Yunnan Province,southwestern China.These assemblages were obtained from the fossil-bearing layers of the Luoping Biota,dated to the early Middle Triassic Anisian stage(Pelsonian substage).These fossiliferous laminated limestones mainly consist of calcites and dolomites,with platy clay minerals and pyrites as subordinate components,indicating that the conodont assemblages were preserved in a lower energy and anoxic sedimentary environment.The new natural assemblages preserve the primary collapse orientations of the Nicoraella feeding apparatus from the Luoping Biota,showing the relative original positions of the S,M and P elements,that could be further used to refine the architecture of this apparatus in space variable M elements and the position unclear P1 elements.Integrating previously reported three-dimensional and bilaterally symmetrical fused clusters,we statistically analyze the size of the positional homogenous elements within different sized materials,in particular S4,S3,or S2 elements,indicates that elements ontogenic changes do not affect the apparatus architecture.Architecture of Nicoraella apparatus remains stable in the process of ontogeny,so our reconstructed model is credible.It is the first time that ample types of materials have been used to restore a conodont apparatus within one genus,namely natural assemblages(articulated and disarticulated),fused clusters(articulated,disarticulated,compressed,and relatively three-dimensional),and abundant discrete elements,respectively.These materials together record the most complete information on architecture in the gondolelloid apparatuses,thus enabling us to reconstruct a reliable fifteen-element appar

关 键 词：CONODONT natural assemblage ARCHITECTURE fused cluster size variation limestone MiddleTriassic southwestern China 

分 类 号：Q915[天文地球—古生物学与地层学]