FISH REMAINS FROM THE BELL CANYON FORMATION (CAPITANIAN, MIDDLE PERMIAN) OF THE PATTERSON HILLS, GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS, WEST TEXAS

Fish microremains are present in an unnamed 3½ m section of carbonate beds interpreted to correlate to either the McCombs Limestone Member or to the McKittrick Canyon Member (as proposed by Wilde but not formally documented) and occurring in a sandstone sequence below the Lamar Limestone Member of the Bell Canyon Formation (Capitanian, Middle Permian) in the Patterson Hills, Guadalupe Mountains, West Texas. Several of the thin carbonate beds are graded debris containing a variety of fragments of bryozoans, brachiopods, trilobites and gastropods. Microfossil remains including small foraminifers, ostracodes, and the conodont Jinogondolella postserrata are also present in the carbonate beds. The fusulinacean Codonofusiella extensa is abundant in the top 10 cm bed of the section but Polydiexodina is present only as fragments within the debris beds. The fish assemblage includes chondrichthyan and actinopterygian teeth, jaw fragments and scales. The chondrichthyans are represented by isolated teeth of the symmoriiform Stethacanthulus meccaensis (Williams), symmoriiform buccopharyngeal and spine-brush complex denticles; teeth of a new hybodontoid shark similar to those of the Triassic genus Rhomaleous; teeth of the anachronistid neoselachian Cooleyella amazonensis Duffin, Richter et Neis, as well as various scales of euselachian ctenacanthids of Cooperella and Kirkella types. The actinopterygian remains contain the scales of Varialepis sp., elonichthyid jaw fragments and scales, as well undetermined teeth and gill-raker denticles. This assemblage is the first record of the occurrence of fish remains in the stratigraphic interval just below the Lamar Limestone Member of the Bell Canyon Formation in the Guadalupe Mountains area.