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Anders Lindskog

Anders Lindskog

Postdoctoral fellow

Anders Lindskog

Middle Ordovician Drepanoistodus (Vertebrata, Conodonta) from Baltica, with description of three new species

Author

  • Jan Audun Rasmussen
  • Mats E. Eriksson
  • Anders Lindskog

Summary, in English

Drepanoistodus basiovalis (Sergeeva, 1963) is a common conodont species in Middle Ordovician strata of Baltica. For many years it has been widely accepted that the species encompasses a wide range of morphological plasticity. Hence, several different morphotypes that significantly deviate from the holotype have nonetheless been included in the broad species concept. In this study, we performed a detailed taxonomical study on 112 predominantly well-preserved specimens (geniculate elements) from the St. Petersburg region of Russia; 37 of these were selected for morphometric analyses together with 21 well-illustrated specimens from the published literature. The results demonstrate that, among the morphotypes that share some characteristics with D. basiovalis sensu lato, at least five species can be readily distinguished. Hence, three new species – Drepanoistodus iommii sp. nov., D. svendi sp. nov. and D. viirae sp. nov. – are here added to the previously known D. basiovalis and D. contractus (Lindström, 1955). In addition, some specimens were left under open nomenclature and assigned to Drepanoistodus aff. basiovalis and D. cf. suberectus (Branson & Mehl, 1933). In order to objectively compare the Drepanoistodus taxa and test the validity of the new species, we performed a Principal Component Analysis combined with non-parametric (PERMANOVA) tests based on 21 morphological characters.

Department/s

  • Lithosphere and Biosphere Science

Publishing year

2021

Language

English

Pages

106-134

Publication/Series

European Journal of Taxonomy

Volume

774

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle

Topic

  • Biological Systematics
  • Geology

Keywords

  • Baltica
  • Conodont
  • Drepanoistodus
  • New species
  • Ordovician

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2118-9773