A Jurassic non-marine chondrichthyan in Australia and its palaeogeographic significance

After the demise of many fish taxa including xenacanth sharks before the Late Triassic, non-marine fish faunas reappeared in Australia the mid-Jurassic in the East Gondwana component of Pangaea with one new chondrichthyan occurring in the Late Jurassic freshwater Talbragar Lagerstätten near Gulgong, New South Wales. The Kimmeridgian Talbragar Fossil Fish Bed unit yields a Jehol-type fauna and flora, with a variety of bony fishes as well as this first-known Jurassic shark in Australasia. The new taxon is based on a partial skeleton lacking a head but with at least partial fins and scales. The latter might be from a hybodontiform or synechodontiform shark or even a crown group neoselachian. From the inferred palaeogeography, this was one of the most southerly living chondrichthyans of the time.