taxonID	type	description	language	source
03ACC15FAB373B25FF12F8CA0C37FDC0.taxon	diagnosis	Diagnosis. A fusiform egg capsule with an elongated pedicle. Te capsule is divided into dorsal and ventral sides by narrow lateral striated flanges. Te dorsal and lateral surfaces of the body are ornamented with possibly up to nine longitudinal ribs. Occurrence. Most likely upper Oxfordian, Late Jurassic. Te specimen was most likely from the Küssaberg Member of the Villigen Formation, Bimammatum zone. Holotype. PIMUZ 5272, a three-dimensional and incomplete internal mould preserved in a yellowish white limestone, missing the inferred anterior end of the beak and the distal end of the pedicle. Other material. Pseudocaudina (see the holotype in Broili, 1926 and specimen JME SOS 4372 in Reich, 2015).	en	Zhao, Yang, Bestwick, Jordan, Fischer, Jan, Bastiaans, Dylan, Greif, Merle, Klug, Christian (2025): The first record of a shortnose chimaera-like egg capsule from the Mesozoic (Late Jurassic, Switzerland). Swiss Journal of Palaeontology (8) 144 (1): 1-13, DOI: 10.1186/s13358-025-00352-x, URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-025-00352-x
03ACC15FAB373B25FF12F8CA0C37FDC0.taxon	discussion	Remarks Laffonia Heer, 1877, highly resembles Pseudocaudina Broili, 1926, in having a fusiform body that is ornamented with several longitudinal ribs, although the latter is intensely compacted into a flat impression (Broili, 1926). In both taxa, the inferred posterior body end tapers to a narrow tail-like appendage (i. e. pedicle), while the anterior end of the capsule is broken. Pseudocaudina was found with half a dozen specimens (Reich, 2015) in Tithonian platy limestones (lithographic limestone) of the Upper Jurassic (Broili, 1926) of the Langenaltheim, Eichstätt and Solnhofen region. Tus, it is slightly younger than the only known Laffonia specimen. Considering the similarities in body shape, size, and morphological characters (e. g. longitudinal ribs), the small age difference (less than 10 My) and geographical proximity to each other, identifying Pseudocaudina as a junior synonym for Laffonia (Reich, 2015; Ziegler, 1991) is justified.	en	Zhao, Yang, Bestwick, Jordan, Fischer, Jan, Bastiaans, Dylan, Greif, Merle, Klug, Christian (2025): The first record of a shortnose chimaera-like egg capsule from the Mesozoic (Late Jurassic, Switzerland). Swiss Journal of Palaeontology (8) 144 (1): 1-13, DOI: 10.1186/s13358-025-00352-x, URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-025-00352-x
03ACC15FAB363B25FF12FD580A38FB80.taxon	description	(Figs. 3, 4; see also the surface scan data on Sketchfab) Description Te specimen exhibits a three-dimensionally preserved fusiform capsule (Fig. 3 A – C). It measures round to 108 mm in length, 41 mm in width across the middle of the inferred dorsal surface, and 7 mm in maximum height in the lateral body surface. Te central body is about 67 mm long and 35 mm wide. It tapers distally with the inferred anterior end slightly wider than the posterior. Te anterior end of the body is truncated and not preserved, and the body surface herein is slightly folded inwards (Figs. 3 A and 4 A), while the posterior extends outwards forming a long, narrow appendage, i. e. the pedicle (Figs. 3 A, B and 4 B). Te preserved part of the pedicle is straight and gradually flattens and fades into the rock without a clear end (Figs. 3 A, 4 B). Te width of the distal-most preserved edge of the pedicle is 7 mm and the length of the pedicle is around 40 mm. Te body surface is ornamented with at least seven distinctive longitudinal ribs (Figs. 3 A, B, 4 A, B) that are interrupted at the broken anterior end but continue along the pedicle until its preserved distal-most edge. Tree ribs are evenly distributed on the dorsal surface (Fig. 3 A, D), and the distance between the ribs on the middle region is about 11 mm. Tree ribs are arranged densely on the inferred left lateral surface (Fig. 3 B, E), with interval distance being 3 – 4 mm. No longitudinal ribs are identified on the ventral surface, which is largely obscured by the matrix (Fig. 3 C, F). Te right lateral surface is only partially exposed at the anterior end of the body, which is apparently compacted into a flat plane (Fig. 3 A). Numerous fine oblique lines that are arranged longitudinally are visible between two ribs on the lower middle of the left lateral surface (Fig. 3 B, E), but no such lines are observed on the dorsal surface. A narrow band of about 5 mm wide and at least 45 mm long extends along the right edge of the central body (Figs. 3 A, D and 4 C). It is interrupted at the upper lateral side of the pedicle, and the same band continues along the lower lateral side of the pedicle (Figs. 3 A, D and 4 B). Te narrow band contains dense transverse striations and exhibits a prominent longitudinal ridge along the midline of the band (Fig. 4 C – E). Another such narrow band is also visible at the left edge of the capsule, which extends along the entire length of the pedicle, but it is interrupted at the lower left side of the body and is slightly bent towards the ventral side (Figs. 3 A, B, D, E and 4 B). Te narrow bands are here interpreted as flanges. Overall, it is likely that the flange was present in life along the entire lateral body edges. Phylogenetic results Te consensus tree places Laffonia in a clade consisting of Crookallia, Vetacapsula, and recent chimaerid egg capsules, and the latter two branches form a sister group (Fig. 5). Tis group is supported by bootstrap and jackknife values of 60 % and 64 %, respectively. Recent elasmobranch egg capsules and the fossil capsules Palaeoxyris, Fayolia, Scyliorhinotheca and Rajitheca are resolved as a clade as well, with Palaeoxyris and Fayolia at the most basal position of this clade (Fig. 5). Tese two clades are placed in a polytomy with rhinochimaerid and callorhinchid egg capsules and Vaillantoonia (Fig. 5).	en	Zhao, Yang, Bestwick, Jordan, Fischer, Jan, Bastiaans, Dylan, Greif, Merle, Klug, Christian (2025): The first record of a shortnose chimaera-like egg capsule from the Mesozoic (Late Jurassic, Switzerland). Swiss Journal of Palaeontology (8) 144 (1): 1-13, DOI: 10.1186/s13358-025-00352-x, URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-025-00352-x
03ACC15FAB333B2CFF12FB5E0E7DFDE0.taxon	description	Te morphological similarities between Laffonia, the Pennsylvanian fossil capsules and modern chimaerid capsules are supported by our phylogenetic analysis (Fig. 5). Te unresolved polytomy relationships are likely due to the low number of characters and the incomplete preservation of the Laffonia capsule. Discovering additional material in the future may help to further clarify the phylogenetic position of Laffonia. Evolutionary significance Crookallia and Vetacapsula from the Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) supposedly represent the oldest records of capsules that were produced by holocephalans (Fischer et al., 2014; Mottequin et al., 2022), although there is a possibility that fossil capsules from the Middle or Late Devonian (Carr & Jackson, 2018; Chaloner et al., 1980) that have been regarded as placoderms could actually be from holocephalans (Fischer et al., 2014). However, the absence of transitional forms in both morphological and stratigraphical contexts makes these assignments tentative. Te most definite holocephalan capsules are known from the Late Triassic of New Zealand (Gottfried & Fordyce, 2015) and Yakutia, Russia (Vozin, 1968), while most fossil capsules stem from the Jurassic and Cretaceous and few remains from the Paleogene (Fig. 7; Brown, 1946; Warren, 1948; Obruchev, 1967; Harrison et al., 2021; Duffin et al., 2022; Kiel et al., 2024; Johns et al., in press). Nevertheless, all currently known Mesozoic fossil capsules exhibit fusiform bodies with broad lateral flanges that greatly resemble either modern callorhinchid or rhinochimaerid capsules (Brown, 1946; Duffin et al., 2022; Gottfried & Fordyce, 2015; Harrison et al., 2021; Obruchev, 1967; Stahl, 1999; Vozin, 1968; Warren, 1948). Until now, 12 recognised species have been assigned to the ichnogenus Vaillantoonia Meunier, 1891, previously used under the generic name Chimaerotheca Brown, 1946 (Kiel et al., 2024), given that the convergence of capsule morphologies and the uncertainty of producers make it difficult to confidently assign them into specific extant genera, although such attempts were proposed in several studies (Obruchev, 1967; Stahl, 1999; Vozin, 1968). In contrast, no fossil capsule that possesses morphological features similar to either chimaerid capsules or Carboniferous taxa has been found in the Mesozoic, resulting in a long and uncertain ghost lineage (Fischer et al., 2014), although potential chimaerid body fossils go back at least to the Cretaceous (Duffin, 2001).	en	Zhao, Yang, Bestwick, Jordan, Fischer, Jan, Bastiaans, Dylan, Greif, Merle, Klug, Christian (2025): The first record of a shortnose chimaera-like egg capsule from the Mesozoic (Late Jurassic, Switzerland). Swiss Journal of Palaeontology (8) 144 (1): 1-13, DOI: 10.1186/s13358-025-00352-x, URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-025-00352-x
