A NEW BASAL NEOPTERYGIAN FROM THE MIDDLE TRIASSIC OF LUOPING COUNTY (SOUTH CHINA)

A new taxon belonging to Neopterygians is described, based on very nicely preserved specimens from the itch vertebrate levels recently discovered in Looping County, Yunnan Province, South China This new assemblage dates to Pelsonian (Amman, Middle Triassic), about the same age of the Parisian Fauna front the nearby Guizhou Province The Looping Fauna, yielding tins new taxon, is turning out to be one of the most important fish faunas of the whole Middle Triassic and the oldest evidence of the fish radiation of this time span This new genus of basal neopterygian shows unique derived characters, especially for the almost naked body, with a single row of urodermals covering the body lobe in the tail and a low of very small and thin scales bearing the lateral line canal along the flank Also in the axial skeleton the new taxon shows peculiar characters such as the neural spines perfectly aligned to each paired neural;itches and abdominal ribs well developed Concerning skull bones, no suborbitals have been detectedGeologyPaleontologySCI(E)15ARTICLE2161-17211