English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Here we report on four highly peculiar skate teeth from Arcille and Certaldo, two Pliocene localities of Tuscany (central Italy). While being attributable to Rajiformes and somewhat reminiscent of  Dipturus  and  Rostroraja , these specimens display an unusual multicuspid tooth design that does not match any extinct or extant skate taxon known to date. The studied teeth are thus referred to a new genus and species of Rajiformes,  Nebriimimus wardi  gen. et sp. nov., which is here tentatively assigned to the family Rajidae. Based on pronounced morphological similarities between the rather large-sized teeth of the latter and those of extant nurse sharks, we hypothesise that  N. wardi  might have been capable of actively foraging upon relatively large food items compared to other rays. This extinct skate species was likely not a common component of the Pliocene Tuscan marine vertebrate assemblages. The palaeoenvironmental scenarios that  N. wardi  inhabited were marginal-marine and open shelf settings characterised by tropical climate conditions. As  N. wardi  is currently known only from lower to mid-Pliocene deposits of the Mediterranean Basin, it is tempting to speculate that its speciation dates back to an earliest Pliocene phase of diversification that also contributed to the emergence of the Mediterranean endemic stock of extant skate species.

Remarkable multicuspid teeth in a new elusive skate (Chondrichthyes, Rajiformes) from the Mediterranean Pliocene