2017/04/17 by Joseph Frederickson, Brian M. Davis · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Fish biology, ecology, and behavior #Ichthyology and Marine Biology #Canyon #Navajo #National monument #Geology #Paleontology #Fish <Actinopterygii> #Fossil Record #Group (periodic table) #Habitat #Tetrapod (structure) #Archaeology #Geography #Ecology #Fishery #Geomorphology #Biology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/jpa.2017.14
openalex publication_date 2017/04/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract We report the first occurrence of an actinopterygian fish from the Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, discovered in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, U.S.A. The site contains multiple individuals, preserved within an interdune deposit, possessing the elongate modified dorsal scales usually characterizing semionotiform fishes. The presence of moderately sized fish provides further evidence that interdune oases were occasionally persistent environmental habitats within the greater Navajo dune system, and that the paleobiota is still woefully undersampled. Additionally, this site could help fill a gap in the actinopterygian fossil record between the patchy Lower Jurassic and better-known Middle Jurassic documentation of western North America.