2011/03/01 by Michele Mazza, Manuel Rigo, Alda Nicora · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.4202/app.2009.1104
openalex publication_date 2011/03/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/11
A rich conodont fauna from two Neotethyan sections, Pizzo Mondello (western Sicily, Italy) and Pignola 2 sections (southern Apennines, Italy) includes conodonts described herein as a new species. Metapolygnathus praecommunisti sp. nov. is transitional between Paragondolella noah and Metapolygnathus communisti. The genus Metapolygnathus (including M. praecommunisti) is now characterised by posterior prolongation of the keel termination, associated with a centrally located pit and with a weak ornamentation confined to the anterior part of the platform margins. The establishment of M. praecommunisti addresses the problems related to the origin and the peculiar, probably facies-controlled, distribution of its descendant species M. communisti. Since M. praecommunisti occurs in the entire Tethys and in North America, we propose the species as a good guide fossil for global correlations, characterised by a short temporal range limited to the uppermost Tuvalian (upper Carnian). The stratigraphic occurrence of the genus Metapolygnathus is restricted to the Tuvalian-Lacian (upper Carnian-lower Norian), excluding its presence in the Julian substage (lower Carnian).