NEW TROPICAL CARCHARHINIDS (CHONDRICHTHYES, CARCHARHINIFORMES) FROM THE LATE EOCENE-EARLY OLIGOCENE OF BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN: PALEOENVIRONMENTAL AND PALEOGEOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

New selachians (sharks and rays) have been collected from several late Eocene and early Oligocene marine localities in the Bugti Hills (Balochistan, Pakistan). Two new species of Requiem sharks (close to the Recent “Bull shark”) are described : Carcharhinus balochensis and Carcharhinus perseus. The rest of the fauna is notable for the strong representation of Carcharhiniformes. These selachian faunas represent a unique tropical association for the Oligocene period and one of the first modern tropical selachian faunas, with modern taxa such as the two new species of “Bull sharks”, Negaprion sp. and one of the first occurrences of Sphyrna sp. Moreover, these faunas permit paleoenvironmental interpretation of adjacent land masses. The relatively modern aspect of these faunas, compared with other contemporaneous and younger selachian associations from Atlantic and Mediterranean seas, suggests biogeographic isolation of selachian communities living in eastern and western parts of the Tethys before its final closure during the early-middle Miocene.