Ceratodontoid (Dipnoi) calvarial bones from the Triassic of Fusea, Carnic Alps: The first Italian lungfish

Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia(*) & Giorgio Carnevale(**)
(*) Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP), Edifici ICP, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain - fabio.dallavecchia@icp.cat. (**) Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso, 35 - I-10125 Torino, Italia - giorgio.carnevale@unito.it.

Four calvarial (=skull roof) bones from the Fusea vertebratebearing site (uppermost Ladinian or lowermost Carnian), near Tolmezzo (Udine Province, northeastern Italy) provide the first unambiguous record of lungfish (Dipnoi) in Italy. The preservation of the specimens does not allow a detailed taxonomic interpretation and for this reason they are referred to the lungfish suborder Ceratodontoidei, leaving indeterminate their familial and generic attribution. Dipnoans constitute an additional taxon to be added to the diverse vertebrate assemblage discovered in the Fusea site, formed by nothosauroids, cyamodontoid placodonts, the protorosaurian Tanystropheus, small archosaurians, and elasmobranchian and actinopterygian fishes. These fishes provide evidence of freshwater influence in the sedimentary environment of this important paleontological site occurring at the boundary between two prevailing marine units (the Schlern/Sciliar Dolostone and the Val Degano Formation).

Ceratodontoidei, Dipnoi, bone beds, Ladinian/Carnian boundary, Triassic, Carnic Alps, northeastern Italy.