First record of Palaeozoic vertebrates from Peru

Devonian vertebrates from South America are notably scarce compared with those of other continents. This is particularly evident in Peru, where no palaeozoic vertebrates have been formally reported so far. In this paper, we figure and describe the first Devonian vertebrates remains from Peru recovered in the Puno region. The remains belong to a very unusual group of Emsian to Eifelian stem-chondrichthyan Pucapampella and Zamponiopteron that characterise the vertebrate fauna of the so-called marine “Mal-vinokaffric Realm”. The remains studied here are represented by three jaw fragments assigned to Pucapampella, and three fin plates of Zamponiopteron. These records increase the palaeogeographic distribution of this assemblage in the Palaeozoic of Gondwana, but more importantly, our findings highlight the potential of the Peruvian outcrops to contribute to our knowledge of the diversity and distribution of the early vertebrate faunas in the South American continent.