Late Pennsylvanian fishes from the Finis Shales of North-Central Texas (USA)

A diverse assemblage of fish microremains is reported from the Virgilian (Gzhelian), Upper Pennsylvanian Finis Shale outcrop at Lost Creek Lake near Jacksboro (Texas, USA). The assemblage contains diverse remains of chondrichthyans, rare acanthodians and actinopterygians. The chondrichthyans are represented by a xenacanthimorph, ctenacanthiforms, symmoriiforms, an euselachian, a neoselachian, a petalodontiform, eugeneodontiforms, a helodontiform and euchondrocephalian taxa. The teeth of Bransonella dominate the chondrichthyan microremains. The occurrence of Bransonella lingulata in the Gzhelian Finis Shales of Texas is the youngest in the world. The assemblage includes widely distributed taxa of chondrichthyans. The chondrichthyan fauna from the Finis Shale outcrop differs from the rich faunas of the Kasimovian–Gzhelian from other regions such as New Mexico and Nebraska in the USA, Moscow, Samara and Volgograd regions of Russia, Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic by the dominance of bransonelliform remains and the set of diverse ctenacanthiforms and euchondrocephalians. The new assemblage of fishes demonstrates the presence of chondrichthyan taxa with different food specialisation in the Virgilian faunal community.