First Records of Early Bajocian Leptosphinctes (Ammonoidea: Perisphinctidae) in the Northern Caucasus, Russia

This paper discusses Early Bajocian Leptosphinctes found for the first time in the interfluve of the Kuban and Urup rivers (Karachay-Cherkessia). A microconch of L. (Kubanoceras) bolshensis sp. nov. is described. Fragments of macroconch shells recovered from the same concretion containing the holotype of the new species were identified as L. (Leptosphinctes) cf. garnieri Pavia; the holotype of this species comes from the Lower Bajocian Blagdeni Subzone of the Humphriesianum Zone in France. The new data are important for understanding the initial stage of the evolution of the family Perisphinctidae.