First reelaborated Cretaceous batoid of the Early Miocene from Spain

Reelaborated fossils are rare components of the palaeontological record which can preserve evidence of unique post-mortem histories. As the name implies, such fossils are usually eroded out of the deposit in which they were originally entombed, and subsequently transported and reburied in a younger bed. This is the case with a single tooth of Ptychotrygon sp., a batoid from Cretaceous seas, found between Miocene mammal remains in the Ribesalbes-Alcora Basin. The Miocene deposits from the Ribesalbes–Alcora Basin form a complex graben belonging to the Neogene rift system superimposed on the preexisting structural features of the South East of the Iberian Range, and are composed of detrital and calcareous materials deposited in alluvial and lacustrine environments overlying a Cretaceous basement. The site where the tooth was found, Corral de Brisca 0B, consists in grey shales topped by black shales with abundant remains of fossil snails and bones; surrounded by Cretaceous dolomitic limestones. Ptychotrygon sp. belongs to the family Ptychogonidae, an enigmatic group of sawfishes that that ranges from the Albian to the Maastrichtian. This genus is common in the Iberian Range and is usually found in Paleogene deposits as reelaborated specimens, but never found in the Neogene deposits.