A small fossil fish fauna, rich in Chlamydoselachus teeth, from the Late Pliocene of Tuscany (Siena, central Italy)

A small elasmobranch teeth and teleost otolith assemblage from the Piacenzian-earliest Gelasian of Tuscany (Castelnuovo Berardenga Scalo, Siena province, Italy) is described. The exceptional abundance of teeth belonging to Cizlamydoselaclms lawleyi Davis, 1887 has enabled us to better define and confirm the validity of this doubtful fossil taxon.ln agreement with Davis (1887) and Ffeil ( 1983) this species appears lo differ from the living frilled shark C. anguìneus Garman, 1884 at least by its larger size. Palaeoecological inferences based on the ecology of C. anguineus together with deep water sharks such as Cellfrophorus granulosus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) and the teleost otolith assemblage mainly characterised by macrourids and myctophids enable us to configure, in the Pìacenzian to earlìest Gelasian of Tuscany (Siena subbasin of the Siena-Radicofani Basin) an upper bathyal slope palaeoenvironment. The occurrence of Chlamydoselaclms in the Piacenzian-earliest Gelasian ofthe Mediterranean palaeo-area demonstrates the persistence of an oceanic environment not as profusely developed as during the early Zanclean (i.e. lower part of MPL 2 foraminiferal biozone; see Cigala Fulgosi, 1986, 1996).