Late Silurian fish microfossils from Ramsåsa (sites D and ‘south of church’), Skåne, south Sweden

The microvertebrate assemblages from Ramsåsa sites D and ‘south of church’, Skåne, south Sweden are described for the first time. Analysis of these microvertebrate assemblages from the Öved Sandstone Formation of Skåne indicates a Ludlow rather than Pridoli age. One of two faunas from Ramsåsa site D contained the zonal fossil Thelodus sculptilis and the other T. sculptilis in association with Paralogania ludlowiensis and Thelodus carinatus. The presence of T. carinatus is the youngest record of this species in Laurussia, and indicative of the transitional phase between the Andreolepis hedei and T. sculptilis Zones of the East Baltic Microvertebrate Standard. A fauna with Thelodus parvidens, from south of Ramsåsa church, proved only broadly datable as Ludlow (Whitcliffian). T. parvidens is the dominant species in the three faunas. Several Thelodus scale variants are described and compared within species concepts of Thelodus parvidens and form overlap between scales of histologically similar Thelodus taxa in the Late Ludlow of the region is considered. The analysis of the morphological features of the trunk scales of the acanthodian Nostolepis striata is continued. Scale forms of Gomphonchus volborthi and other, unidentified acanthodian scales are described and compared. The interregional correlation of the Scanian fish faunas on the basis of recent faunal data is surveyed. A contribution to IGCP 406: Circum-Arctic Palaeozoic Vertebrates