Original paper
First fossils of the extant blacktip shark Carcharhinus limbatus from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin
Collareta, Alberto; Merella, Marco; Casati, Simone; Di Cencio, Andrea
Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen Band 301 Heft 1 (2021), p. 109 - 118
87 references
published: Jul 28, 2021
manuscript accepted: Jun 18, 2021
manuscript received: May 14, 2021
ArtNo. ESP155030101007, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
Here we report on two fossil teeth attributed to the blacktip shark Carcharhinus limbatus (Elasmobranchii: Carcharhiniformes: Carcharhinidae) from lower Pliocene (ca. 5.1–4.5 Ma) marine deposits of Tuscany (central Italy). A survey of the palaeoichthyological literature and online resources reveals that fossils of C. limbatus have been reported from Neogene and Quaternary deposits of the Americas and Indo-Pacific Asia. Therefore, the Tuscan specimens described herein represent the first occurrence of C. limbatus as a fossil from both Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. Our finds suggest that the blacktip shark reached a circumglobal distribution in warm waters (including the then warmer-than-today Mediterranean Sea) not later than the Pliocene; at the same time, they demonstrate that the continued study of the relatively well-investigated Neogene elasmobranch faunas of Italy can still result in significant novelties. Further investigations on other shark tooth assemblages from shallow-marine, warm-water, nearshore deposits are likely to reveal new occurrences of C. limbatus in the Pliocene of the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere (e.g., along the palaeontologically underexplored Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Africa).
Keywords
blacktip shark • Carcharhinidae • Italy • Mediterranean Sea • palaeobiogeography • palaeoichthyology • Pliocene • requiem sharks • Tuscany • Zanclean