A DIVERSE ROADIAN (GUADALUPIAN, MIDDLE PERMIAN) FISH ASSEMBLAGE FROM THE CUTOFF FORMATION, GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS, WEST TEXAS

A very rich and diverse fish assemblage has been found at a well known ammonoid locality (small quarry on US 180/62) in the Cutoff Formation (Williams Ranch Member), Roadian, Middle Permian on the west side of the Guadalupe Mountains, West Texas. The assemblage contains numerous remains of chondrichthyans and actinopterigyans. The chondrichthyans are represented by isolated teeth of the symmoriiform Stethacanthulus decorus (Ivanov), stethacanthid teeth, buccopharyngeal denticles of symmoriiforms; teeth of a new genus and species of the family Jalodontidae and a tooth of Adamantina foliacea Ivanov; teeth of a species of hybodontoid Polyacrodus; teeth of the anachronistids Cooleyella amazonensis Duffin, Richter and Neis, and C. sp. nov.; and various scales (including ctenacanthid, orodontid, hybodontid, neoselachian, Cooperella, Kirkella and Moreyella types). The actinopterigyan remains include the skull bones, teeth, tooth plates, pharyngeal denticles, vertebrae, scales, and belong to a haplolepid and some elonichthyids such as Alilepis sp. nov. A new genus of Jalodontidae includes two new species: one is found in the Cutoff Formation, a second – in the Middle Permian of the nearby PI section in a US 180/62 road cut a few kilometers west of the Cutoff locality. Stethacanthulus decorus occurs in the Serpukhovian (Lower Carboniferous) – Artinskian (Lower Permian) of the Pre-polar, Middle and Southern Urals, Russia. The teeth of Adamantina foliacea have been reported from the Tournaisian of the Southern Urals, the Asselian of the Polar Urals, the Artinskian of the Middle Urals, Russia, and from the Late Pennsylvanian of Iowa, USA. Cooleyella amazonensis is known early in the Late Pennsylvanian of Brazil but recently has been found in the Kazanian, Middle Permian of Tatarstan, Kirov and Vladimir regions, Russia. All species of Alilepis are known from the Middle Permian of the East European Platform. The diversity of this assemblage outstrips all known Middle Permian assemblages from West Texas.