Short Communication

The conﬁrmed fossil record of the blue shark Prionace glauca (Linnaeus, 1758) from the South Eastern Paciﬁc

JAIME A. VILLAFAÑA
Laboratorio de Paleobiología, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA), Avda. Bernardo Ossandón 877, 1781681, Coquimbo and Centro de Investigación en Recursos Naturales y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins, Avda. Viel 1497, 8370993 Santiago, Chile; jaime.villafana@ceaza.cl
Corresponding author

RENÉ KINDLIMANN
Zuerichstrasse 58, 8607 Aathal-Seegraeben, Switzerland, rene.j.kindlimann@bluewin.ch

MARTIN CHÁVEZ-HOFFMEISTER
Corporación de Investigación y Avance de la Paleontología e Historia Natural de Atacama (CIAHN), Prat 58, 1570000, Caldera and Laboratorio de Paleontología, Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Austral de Chile, Los Laureles s/n, 5090000, Valdivia, Chile; martinchavez@ciahn.cl

ABSTRACT

We offer the first formal description of fossil specimens of the blue shark Prionace glauca from Chile. The teeth described in this study were collected from the Mina Fosforita locality and preliminary assigned to the late Neogene. The confirmation of the presence of the blue shark in the Neogene sediments of Chile is a significant contribution to our global knowledge of the past distribution of chondrichthyans, being the first well-documented record of the species for the southern hemisphere. Our work shows that future studies are still necessary to better understand the evolutionary history of this shark species in the region.

Key words: Teeth, Neogene, Chile, Bahia Inglesa, Mina Fosforita.

How to cite: Villafaña, J.A., Kindliman, R. & Chávez-Hoffmeister, M. 2022. The conﬁrmed fossil record of the blue shark Prionace glauca (Linnaeus, 1758) from the South Eastern Paciﬁc. Spanish Journal of Palaeontology, 37(2), 249-256.

Received 19 October 2022, Accepted 13 November 2022, Published online 7 December2022

https://doi.org/10.7203/sjp.25576