A microvertebrate fauna from the Llandovery of South China

The late Llandovery (early Silurian) of South China has yielded a locally abundant and diverse microvertebrate fauna. This includes scales of the little-known mongolepids, sinacanthid spines and a whole host of as yet unassigned forms. The material recovered provides a considerable amount of new information about the diversity of fish in the South Yangtze biome during the early Silurian, and suggests that ichthyoliths have a future role to play in Lower Palaeozoic stratigraphic correlation across China and into Mongolia and Siberia. A new family of mongolepids, the Shiqianolepidae, is erected, accommodating the new genus Shiqianolepis with the type species S. hollandi. The description of Shiqianolepis enables the identification of a differentiated squamation in mongolepid fish, a feature which has not previously been recognised. Two further taxa, Rongolepis cosmetica gen. et sp. nov. and Chenolepis asketa gen. et sp. nov., of, as yet, uncertain affinities are also erected.