AN OCCURRENCE OF CORVASPIS (OSTRACODERMI) IN CANADA

D. L. DINELEY
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Department of Geology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada Received November 11, 1964 ABSTRACT The heterostracan ostracoderm Coroaspis has been discovered in rocks possibly of marine origin and Silurian age in the northern Yukon, Canada. The specimens indicate a form very closely similar to C. kingi but no other specifically identifiable vertebrate remains occur with them to resolve the problem of their age. INTRODUCTION

Specimens of a heterostracan recently collected in the northern Yukon were sent to Chicago Natural History Museum (Denison 1964), where Dr. R. H. Denison kindly forwarded them to the author. Although there are only 10sizeable fragments in the callection, together with a mass of very comminuted pieces, they are sufficiently well preserved to suggest very strongly C o r m ~ s k i ~ g Woodward. i They are of interest in themselves and in emphasizing the \vide distribution of some of the less well-known ostracoderms. Siluro-Devonian ostracoderms in North America occur in two broad facies *the "Old Red Sandstone" red-bed successions (Knoydart Formation, and others) and also the dark or grey marine shales, mudstones, limestones, and dolomites (western U,S.A., Ohio, the Rocky Mountains, and the arctic islands of Canada) (see Denison 1956). Several genera are known from both types of deposit, and support the view that the ostracoderms may have migrated from one environment to the other during the lifetime of t h e individual, or were able to move between the two a t will. The present material was collected by Dr. A. Lenz,of the California Standard Company, immediately west of the Snake River (lat. 65'22' N., long. 133'30' W.). It came from approximately 70 f t above the top of the "Ronning" Dolomite and occurs in a buff to orange-weathering unit some 200-300 f t thick. Limestones 40-50 ft below the fish-bearing band contain Trimerella, Protothyris cf. didyma (Dalman), Conchidium, and various non-critical corals. Dr. Lenz believes that formation to be late Silurian in age. Together with the Cowaspis fragments are the remains of three other ostracoderms. Dr. Denison (1964, pp. 400, 451) regards these as members o f the Cyathaspididae; one is probably a Poraspidine, and another seems comparable to Dinaspidella, a genus known only from the Fraenkelryggen division of the Red Bay S e r i e s of Spitsbergen. Denison also noted a fragment of a heterostracan of undetermined family, but it is perhaps one o f the Drepanaspididae. This material may indicate a Gedinnian, Downtonian age with the possibility of a hidden break in the succession between the ostracoderm bed and the Trimerella horizon. So far, however, such a break has not been confirmed from field evidence.
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DESCRIPTION OF MATERIAL

The specimens are deposited in the vertebrate palaeontology collections of the National Museum of Canada (Nos. 10377 to 10387 inclusive). They are preserved in a grey siltstone or silty limestone (one specimen). Apart from the ostracoderms, no other fossils are visible. The following are recognized : large median disk one almost complete (No. 10377), two large fragments (Nos. 10378 and 10379); orbital plates four more or less complete (Nos. 103788, 10380-10382) ; small indeterminate fragments 8 (Nos. 10383, 10384, 10385, 10386, slab 10387). Every piece is remarkable for its extreme thinness, about 0.75 mm. The external ornamentation is, for the most part, most similar to that of Corvas~is kingi Woodward. (A large number of very small fragments show no ornamentation, being preserved outer face down.) In Cmvaspis kingi the dentine ribbing runs at about 3 per millimeter and this is also the case in most of the present material. None of the new specimens, however, show the marginal tuberculation also found in C. king; nor the superficial division of the large pIates into "tesswae". A11 are remarkably flat. Specimen No. 10378 (Fig. 1) is a rather shattered portion of a median disk (52 mrn X 25 mm) and is remarkable for the great range in ribbing width seen between the margin and the central parts. At the margin the ribs are about fiveper millimeter but in the "front" center they have a width of two or a little less per millimeter. This coarse ribbing becomes graduaIly narrower towards the presumed rear. Over the greater part of specimen No. 10379 (Fig. 2) the ornamentation is arranged in the usual longitudinal manner, but diverging slight!y from a median line. In a marginal zone of about a quarter the width of the plate the longitudinal ribbing seems to have been added cyclornorially to that of the inner zone. The inner zone is approximately 15 mm across from median line t o the outer zone and the fra,ment itself is some 40 mm Iong by 30 mm across. Specimen No. 10377 (Fig, 3) is the greater part of a median disk, measuring 90 mm by 55 mm, with irregular areas of longitudinal ribbing at each end divided into sections little larger than tubercle size (i.e. almost as wide as long). Preservation is too poor to show any median line as in the specimen just described nor is there any visible division of the ornamentation generally into zones as above, though the ribbing a t each end tends t o follow the margins and to converge upon a median point. Specimens Nos. 10378A, 10380, 10381, and 10382 are orbital plates with central orbits about 3 mm in diameter and with rather coarse ornamentation arranged concentrically about the orbit. All have imperfect margins, or at Ieast are irregular in outline with no sign of a distinctive marginal mamentation. Specimen No. 10380 (Fig. 4) is notable in that the innermost three rings of ribbing about the orbit are slightly raised and that the outer ornamentation is in the form of large flat irregular tubercles quite unlike those seen in other

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specimens. These tubercles have very finely crenulated margins. The whole fragment is gently arched with a depth of about 3 mm. Specimen No. 10381 (Fig. 5) shows coarse, flat, elongate dentine tubercles, rather than ribs, concentricdly arranged about the orbit. I t is not possible to say whether the other fragments in the collection belong to large median plates.

FIG.4 . Corvaspis aff. C. kingi Woodward, Yukon (NMC No. 10380) X2. Orbital plate, with part of the ornamentation consisting of large flat tubercles with minutely crimped edges. FIG. 5. Corvaspis aff. C. kingi Wopdward, Yukon (NMC No. 10381) X2. Orbital plate showing similar ornamentation. The orientation of F~gs. 4 and 5 is arb~trary. DISCUSSION

This material is very similar t o Corvaspis kingi Woodward (1934), but in a t least two specimens (Nos. 10378 and 10380), notably the orbital, some of the individual ribs of dentine ornament are broader than usual and in 10378 they are marginally much finer. Other features of difference include the arrangement of ribbing in specimen 10379 and the extreme thinness of the plates. Although most ostracoderms from western North America have endoskeletal armor that is thin in comparison with that of their European counterparts, it is rather unexpected in Corvaspis, British specimens being around 1.75-2.00 mm thick. I t may be due to the mode of preservation, which is similar to that in fishes from the west reported by Bryant (1932,1933) and by Denison (1953). Crushing of the cellular layer may largely be the reason for the present condition of the Corvaspis plates. Another point of dissimilarity between the Canadian specimens and those in Europe is the absence of any small polygonal synchronomorial units ("tesserae"), delineated by faint grooves (Stensio 1958; Tarlo 1960, p. 223, Fig. 5a). What is of interest in this connection, however, is that specimen No. 10379 (Fig. 2) shows what may be regarded as a central synchronomorial unit with part of a surrounding cyclomorial growth area. I t is possible, too, that in the case of the orbital plate irregular units of one "tubercle" or "rib" are fused to the innermost synchronomorial ribs around the orbit.
FIG.3. Corvaspis aff. C. kingi Woodward, Yukon (NMC No. 10377) X2. Greater part of a shattered presumed dorsal median disk.

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The orbital plate (No. 10380 Fig. 4) suggests in its finely crenulate smooth outer tubercles that it may have an affinity with Denison's Heterostraci indet. type A. (1963 p. 136, Figs. 80B, 81A). The ?stratigraphically higher Corws@is in Europe does not seem t o possess this feature, which may be an ancestral character persisting from the Silurian forebears of the genus. The new material clearly bears very close similarity to C. kingi. At this stage, however, and in view of its possibly lower stratigraphical horizon, i t is for the moment merely identified as Cmaspis cf. C. kingi 'CVoodward 1934. In their size and distinct ornamentation these fragments do not show close affinities t o other known heterostracans. The new material unfortunately does not throw further Iight upon the systematic position of C m s p i s . Dineley (1953) estabIished the family Corvaspidae (sic) and Stensio (1958) proposed a classification in which i t was raised to ordinal rank, Corvaspida. In 1960 Tarlo suggested that Cornaspis could be retained as a member of the psanlmosteids but later (1962) left it within the family Corvaspididae. Possible median plates, orbital, ?branchial, and ?postorbital plates (and scales) are known, and appear to originate from the fusion of tesserae. Their irregular outline suggests that fields of tesserae separated them. No definite numbers of paired plates or unpaired median plates can be given, nor is there yet any indication of the shape of the carapace. The new specimens are valuable in extending the geographical range of Corvaspis. Originally found in the Welsh Borderland (Woodward 1934; Dineley 1953), it is now also described from Spitsbergen (F$yn and Heintz 1943; Dineley 1953), West Germany (Gross 1961), and Podolia (Dineley 1953). In these localities it is often associated with Traquairaspis. This latter genus has now been found in North America, in rocks reasonably dated as Upper Downtonian in Nova Scotia (Dineley 1964) and as uppermost Silurian in the southeast Yukon (Denison 1963). Thus the geographical range of an increasing number of oatracoderms is found to embrace both Europe and North America. Transatlantic ranges for CephEaspis, Ptemspis, Simopteraspis, Prolopteraspis, and various placoderms have been known for some years, and Denison (1964) now records Cyathuspis, Tolypelepis, Hmnalaspidella, Anglaspis, and ?Dimsflidella from both sides of the ocean. A genus comparing favorably with Cornspis was reported from the Peel Sound formation by Thorsteinsson and Tozer in 1963 (in Fortier et al. 1963). This formation has also yielded a form "cIosely related t o Angbspis" (Fortier et al. 1963) and a Downtonian age seems to be indicated. At the present these specimens are not available for study, but since the above was written, further Comsfiis specimens have been obtained from the Peel Sound formation by the writer. They appear to add little to this account. I t is likely that the new locality for Curvaspis is either of late Silurian age, or that an undetected diastem exists between Dr. Lenz's horizons with Trinwella etc. and the Cornspis-bearing band. If further investigation shows marine invertebrates t o be more closely associated with these Cornaspis than is known so far, and the lithological succession suggests it might, this may be another

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instance of ostracoderms well-known in the "Old Red Sandstone" facies occurring also in a marine sediment. Such would support the idea that these animals may have entered the marine environment from time to time even if they normally lived elsewhere a t this period.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks are due to Dr. Denison for kindly reading these notes and offering helpful criticism.
REFERENCES BRYANT, W. L. 1932. Lower Devonian fishes of Bear Tooth Butte, Wyoming. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 71, 225. 1933. The fish fauna of Beartooth Butte, Wyoming. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 72, 285. DENISON,R. H. 1953. Early Devonian fishes from Utah. Pt. 11, Heterostraci. Fieldiana Geol. 11, 291. 1956. A review of the habitat of the earliest vertebrates. Fieldiapa Geol. 11, 359. 1963. New Silurian Heterostraci from southeastern Yukon. Fieldiana Geol. 14, 105. 1964. The Cyathaspididae, a family of Silurian and Devonian jawless vertebrates. 13, 311. Fieldlana -1. DIN~Y U. ,L . 1953. N o t e on the genus Corvas#-i~.Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, MB,166. 1964. New specimens of Tragrra.iraspis from Canada. Palaeontology, 7, 210. FORTIER, Y. 0. et al. In&?. Geology of the north-central part of the Arctic Archipelago1 Northwestern Territories (Operation Franklin). Geol. Surv. Can. Mem. 320. F$w, S. and HEI~TZ, A. 1943. The Downtonian and Devonian vertebrates of Spitsbergen. VIII. The English-Norwegian-Swedish Expedition 1939. Geological results. Norg. Smlbard Ishaw. Undergk. Skr. 55. GROSS,W. 1961. Auibau des Panzers obersilun'scher Heterostraci und Osteostrsci Norddeutschlands (Geschiebe) und Oesel. Acta Zool. Stockholm, 42, 73. STENSIO, E.A. 1958. Les Cyclostomes fossil=, i n Gass&, l'raith de Zoologic, 13, f a x . 2,173. TARLO, L. B. 1960. The Downtonian ostracoderm Cowaspis kingi, with notes on the develop rnent of dermal plates in the Iietetnstraci. Palaeontology, 3, 217. 1962. 'The classificatiori and evolution of the Heterostraci. Acta Palaontol. Polonica, VII, 249. WOODWARD, A. S. 1934. Note on a new Cyathaspidian fish from the Upper Downtonian of Corvedale. Quart. J. Geol. Soc. London, 90, 566.