New Records of Carboniferous Fish Teeth and a Spine From Ireland

The recent discovery of fossil fish tooth plates, herein assigned to Psephodus magnus, and a partial stem chondrichthyan paired fin spine, herein assigned to Oracanthus milleri, extends the known geographical range of these taxa in Ireland and provides the first record of any fish fauna from the Mississippian (Asbian) Burren Formation of the Burren, County Clare, and the Rinn Point Limestone formation, Donegal, Ireland, respectively. In addition, a Serpukhovian phosphate horizon at the base of the Clare Shale Formation at Doolin has yielded holocephalan tooth plates which are described; one is tentatively assigned to Psammodus sp., while the others can be assigned to either the Helodontiformes or to the Cochliodontiformes. A specimen of the cladodont Saivodus sp. as well as a single indeterminate actinopterygian tooth are also recorded. This is the first illustrated description of fish teeth from this horizon.