Eocene (Lutetian) Shark-Rich Coastal Paleoenvironments of the Southern North Sea Basin in Europe: Biodiversity of the Marine Fürstenau Formation Including Early White and Megatooth Sharks

The Fürstenau Formation (Lutetian, Paleogene, Eocene) is based on type sections near Fürstenau in Germany (central Europe) and is built of 22 meter thick marine glauconitic and strongly bioturbated sands, clays, and a vertebrate-rich conglomerate bed. The conglomerate layer from the Early Lutetian transgression reworked Lower Cretaceous, and Paleogene marine sediments. It is dominated by pebbles from the locally mountains which must have been transported by an ancient river in a delta fan. Marine reworked Lower Cretaceous and Paleogen pebbles/fossils, were derived from the underlying deposits of northern Germany (= southern pre North Sea basin). The benthic macrofauna is cold upwelling water influenced and non-tropical, and medium divers. The vertebrate fish fauna is extremely rich in shark teeth, with about 5,000 teeth per cubic meter of gravel. The most dominant forms are teeth from sand shark ancestors Striatolamia macrota, followed by white shark ancestors Carcharodon auriculatus. Even teeth from the magatooth shark ancestor Carcharocles sokolovi are present in a moderately diverse and condensed Paleogene fish fauna that also includes rays, chimaeras, and more then 80 different bony fish. Fragmentary turtle remains are present, and few terrestrial vertebrates and even marine mammals with phocids, sirenians and possibly whales.

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Skeleton of the Fossil Shark Isurus denticulatus from the Turonian (Late Cretaceous) of Germany—Ecological Coevolution with Prey of Mackerel Sharks

Paleontology Journal ◽

10.1155/2014/934235 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 ◽

pp. 1-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Cajus G. Diedrich

Keyword(s):

Late Cretaceous ◽

Marine Mammals ◽

Middle Miocene ◽

Feeding Habits ◽

Fish Fauna ◽

White Shark ◽

Northern Germany ◽

Isurus Oxyrinchus ◽

Mammal Evolution ◽

Plesiomorphic Character

An Isurus denticulatus (Glickman, 1957) shark skeleton from the late Turonian (Late Cretaceous) of Germany is described within a diverse upwelling influenced fish fauna of northern Germany, Europe. It was found in the turbiditic marly limestones at the submarine Northwestphalian Lippe Swell in the southern Proto-North Sea Basin. Compared to modern mackerel shark Isurus oxyrinchus Rafinesque, 1809, including cranial denticles, this allows a revision of the younger synonym “Cretoxyrhina Glickman, 1964”. Within the Cretaceous Isurus, a loss of the lateral tooth cusps and nutritive clefts of the roots (considered as plesiomorphic character of the Lamnidae) took place from the Albian (Early Cretaceous) to the Campanian (Late Cretaceous). The tooth morphology changed during the Albian-Turonian from a tearing (I. denticulatus) to a cutting (I. mantelli) type (Coniacian-Campanian). The complete lateral cusplet and symphyseal teeth reduction in Isurus at the end of the Cretaceous seem to be a result of the coevolutionary changing feeding habits of a worldwide expanding shark. In a second evolutionary adaptation, parallel to the new radiation of marine mammals (Paleocene/early Eocene), from Isurus, the white shark ancestors (Carcharodon) seem to originate. In another radiation from Isurus, coevolving with appearance of dolphins and further marine mammal evolution within the Middle Miocene, a second time Isurus developed serrated teeth (I. escheri).

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Lower Cretaceous calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy in the Danish Central Trough

Danmarks Geologiske Undersøgelse Serie A ◽

10.34194/seriea.v20.7039 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 1-89

Author(s):

Erik Thomsen

Keyword(s):

North Sea ◽

Lower Cretaceous ◽

Calcareous Nannofossils ◽

Northern Germany ◽

The North ◽

Lower Aptian ◽

Upper Hauterivian ◽

Central Trough ◽

The North Sea ◽

Calcareous Nannofossil Biostratigraphy

Calcareous nannofossils are described from Lower Cretaceous strata of four borings in the Central Trough of the Danish North Sea sector, and from three Aptian units on Helgoland and at Sarstedt, northern Germany. The assemblages range in age from Upper Hauterivian to Albian-?Cenomanian. Abundances of calcareous nannofossils varied considerably throughout the investigated sequences. They were rock-forming in several Lower Barremian - Aptian sediments, but rare or lacking in many of the Hauterivian and Albian strata. The Middle Barremian - Lower Aptian assemblages were often dominated by nannoconids. Preservation was generally bad in chalk and good in marl deposits. Some finely laminated black sediments yielded extremely well-preserved assemblages. One hundred and sixteen species were recognized. Eighteen species were selected as biostratigraphically particularly useful and their chronostratigraphic ranges are shown and discussed. The ages of the investigated sequences were determined on the basis of the selected nannofossil events. Some distinct sedimentary units in the North Sea could be correlated with time-equivalent formations in eastern England and northern Germany.

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Marine vertebrates from the Santonian coastal carbonates of northwestern Germany – a tool for the reconstruction of a Proto- North Sea Basin intertidal dinosaur-exchange bridge

Open Geosciences ◽

10.1515/geo-2015-0020 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Cajus G. Diedrich ◽

Udo Scheer

Keyword(s):

North Sea ◽

Upper Cretaceous ◽

Milankovitch Cycles ◽

Rhenish Massif ◽

Carbonate Sand ◽

Northern Germany ◽

Theropod Dinosaur ◽

Intertidal Zones ◽

Vertebrate Fauna ◽

Shark Teeth

AbstractA diverse vertebrate fauna, dominated by shark teeth, is recorded from conglomerates within the limestones of the Upper Cretaceous (Santonian) Burgsteinfurt Formation of northwestern Germany. The conglomerate beds comprise carbonatic, glauconitic and phosphate nodules, as well as Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous extraclasts. The Burgsteinfurt Formation conglomerates contain fining-upwards parasequences 2–20 cm in thickness, interpreted as tempestite layers within a unit formed by larger-scale Milankovitch Cycles. The presence of the inoceramid Sphenoceramus patootensis and belemnite Gonioteuthis granulata indicate a late Santonian age for the unit. The studied vertebrate fauna from the Weiner Esch locality consists of 20 selachian species (14 macroselachians and 6 microselachians), a few teleosts, rare marine mosasaur remains, and one tooth from a theropod dinosaur. 95% of the vertebrates in the assemblage are depositionally autochthonous, with the remaining material reworked from older underlying Cenomanian–Coniacian (lower Upper Cretaceous) limestones. On the basis of observed sedimentary structures, the scarcity of deep-sea selachians, and the dominance of the Mitsukurinidae (59% of the preserved shark fauna) in the fossil assemblage, the unit is interpreted as a shallow (0–3 metres deep), subtidal, nearshore environment, or even subaerial carbonate-sand islands, located on the southern margin of a submarine swell. The presence of a Santonian theropod in this deposit, and other dinosaur records in northern Germany, together support the interpretation of a short-lived uplift event with strong upwelling influence for the Northwestphalian-Lippe submarine swell north of the Rhenish Massif in the southern Proto- North Sea Basin. A new migration model for dinosaurs moving along carbonate coasts or intertidal zones of shallow carbonate-sand islands in Central Europe is presented, which may explain the scattered distribution of dinosaur remains across Europe in the Upper Cretaceous.

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