Palaeoxyris

Palaeoxyris
Temporal range: Carboniferous–Cretaceous
Trace fossil classification
Ichnogenus: Palaeoxyris
Brongniart, 1828

Palaeoxyris is the prehistoric shark egg capsule morphotype of the family Hybodontidae with a predominant occurrence in ancient freshwater environments. They comprise a beak, a body and a pedicle, with the beak merging into the body. They display a conspicuous right-handed spiral of ridges around the body, and in some cases, the pedicle.[1] Originally described as plant remains and controverselly discussed within the floral kingdom it took decades before their true nature as animal eggs was revealed.[2]

Nearly 30 different Palaeoxyris species are currently known with a stratigraphic range from the Carboniferous to the Cretaceous. One species, P. friessi was described in 2010, from Middle Triassic deposits at Ilsfeld, southern Germany.[1] Another, Palaeoxyris alterna, was described in 2011 from lake deposits of the Middle Triassic Madygen Formation in Kyrgyzstan.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Ronald Böttcher (2010). "Description of the shark egg capsule Palaeoxyris friessi n. sp. from the Ladinian (Middle Triassic) of SW Germany and discussion of all known egg capsules from the Triassic of the Germanic Basin" (PDF). Palaeodiversity 3: 123–139.
  2. ↑ Jan Fischer & Ilja Kogan (2008). "Elasmobranch egg capsules Palaeoxyris, Fayolia and Vetacapsula as subject of palaeontological research – an annotated bibliography". Freiberger Forschungshefte. C 528: 75–91.
  3. ↑ Jan Fischer, Sebastian Voigt, Jörg W. Schneider, Michael Buchwitz & Silke Voigt (2011). "A selachian freshwater fauna from the Triassic of Kyrgyzstan and its implication for Mesozoic shark nurseries". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31 (5): 937–953. doi:10.1080/02724634.2011.601729.


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