Citation: | Jinyuan Huang, Carlos Martínez-Pérez, Qiyue Zhang, Kexin Zhang, Mao Luo, Wen Wen, Changyong Zhou, Xiao Min, Zhixin Ma, Tao Xie, Michael J. Benton, Philip C. J. Donoghue. Exceptionally Preserved Conodont Natural Assemblages from the Middle Triassic Luoping Biota, Yunnan Province, China: Implications for Architecture of Conodont Feeding Apparatus. Journal of Earth Science, 2023, 34(6): 1762-1776. doi: 10.1007/s12583-022-1793-z |
Articulated natural assemblages contain direct evidence of the element numbers, morphologies, positions and structures for reconstructing the feeding apparatuses of conodont animals, but these kind of materials are very rare in fossil records. Here we report ten new conodont natural assemblages from Member Ⅱ of the Guanling Formation in Luoping County, eastern Yunnan Province, southwestern China. These assemblages were obtained from the fossil-bearing layers of the Luoping Biota, dated to the early Middle Triassic Anisian stage (Pelsonian substage). These fossiliferous laminated limestones mainly consist of calcites and dolomites, with platy clay minerals and pyrites as subordinate components, indicating that the conodont assemblages were preserved in a lower energy and anoxic sedimentary environment. The new natural assemblages preserve the primary collapse orientations of the
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