Pterotheca (Gastropoda) from the Telychian (Silurian) Xiushan formation of South China: Taxonomy, paleoecology and paleogeography

Pterotheca Salter, 1853 is an unusual but readily identifiable bellerophontoid gastropod that occurs in the Upper Ordovician through to the Llandovery of the lower Silurian in many parts of North America and Europe. Recently, a large collection of Pterotheca was obtained for the first time from the Xiushan Formation of middle Telychian (Llandovery) age in the Hunan Province of South China. This is also the first record of the genus in the low-latitude peri-Gondwanan region. Based on the collection, two new species of Pterotheca, i.e. P. yongshunensis n. sp. and P. lata n. sp., were identified and described herein. The morphologic analysis suggests that close relatives of these new species may be Pterotheca species from the Telychian of Scotland. The new species show continuous variations of marginal apex to submarginal apex, implying that one of the Pterotheca species may be ancestral to the Devonian Aspidotheca Spriesterbach, 1919. The Pterotheca species from South China possibly lived..., All the Pterotheca specimens from South China are measured by Image J and/or CorelDRAW 2021® on photographs, noting that the skewed specimens which are possibly related taphonomic deformation are measured on retro-deformed images using CorelDRAW 2021®, where the shell is symmetrical along the median axis (marked with * after Specimen No. in the file)., , # ***Pterotheca*** (Gastropoda) from the Telychian (Silurian) Xiushan Formation of South China: taxonomy, paleoecology and paleogeography

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8cz8w9h16](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8cz8w9h16)

## Description of the data and file structure

One Excel file of measurements of nearly complete *Pterotheca yongshunensis* n. sp. and *P. lata* n. sp. (Gastropoda) from the Silurian Xiushan Formation of the Wanping section of South China. Note the skewed specimens are measured on retro-deformed images using CorelDRAW 2021®, where the shell is symmetrical along the median axis (marked with * after the Specimen no.).

The structural terms and dimensional parameters used in this study can be found in our accepted manuscript \"Li, W.J., Fang, X., Song, J.Q., and Zhang, Y.D., in press, *Pterotheca* (Gastropoda) from the Telychian (Silurian) Xiushan Formation of South China: taxonomy, paleoecology and paleogeography: Journal of Paleontology\", and also in the reference \"Ebb...