The Neogene Sharks, Rays, and Bony Fishes from Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina

Abstract

The fish remains, including 104 species from 52 families, collected at the Lee Creek Mine near Aurora, Beaufort County, North Carolina, constitute the largest fossil marine fish assemblages known from the Coastal Plain of the eastern United States. The fish faunas came principally from the Pungo River Formation (Burdigalian, planktonic foraminifera zones N6-7) and the Yorktown Formation (Zanclian, planktonic foraminifera zone N18 and younger). A few specimens were obtained from the James City Formation (early-middle Pleistocene). As an assemblage, the fishes found in the Pungo River Formation, including 44 species of selachians and 10 species of teleosts, are most similar to those from the “Muschelsandstein” of the Swiss Molasse. The Yorktown Formation fish assemblage includes 37 species of selachians and 40 species of teleosts, derived mostly from the base of the Sunken Meadow Member. Although the Pungo River Formation fish fauna is dominated by warm-water (18°-25°C) taxa, the Yorktown Formation fossil fish fauna includes warm and cool water species. Both fish assemblages occur with a cool-temperate invertebrate fauna. The abundant remains in both faunas permit us to make the following interpretations concerning shark taxonomy. We reassign Megascyliorhinus to the family Parascyllidae and Parotodus benedenii (Le Hon) to the Lamnidae. Among the mako sharks, we designate the lectotype of Isurus desori (Agassiz) and synonymize it with 7. oxyrinchus Rafinesque and separate Isurus xiphodon (Agassiz) from I. hastalis (Agassiz). Palaeocarcharodon, Procarcharodon, Megaselachus, and Carcharocles are synonymized with Carcharodon. Sphyrna laevissima (Cope) is synonymized with S. zygaena (Linnaeus), and Galeocerdo triqueter Cope is synonymized with Alopias cf. A. vulpinus (Bonnaterre). This fauna produced four new records and two new species. Among the selachians, we note the first records of Megascyliorhinus, Rhincodon, Megachasma, and Isistius from the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and among the bony fishes, the first occurrences in the fossil record of Caulolatilus and Pomatomus. We also describe two new species of bony fishes, Lopholatilus rayus and Pagrus hyneus.