The first Peruvian record of Enchodus (Actinopterygii, Aulopiformes, Enchodontidae)  in the Upper Cretaceous Vivian Formation

We describe isolated teleostean teeth found in no association with the jaw bone. The specimens have been recovered in Late Cretaceous marine deposits of the Vivian Formation in the Peruvian Sub-Andean Region. The deposition sequence from where the teeth come is interpreted as a shallowing-upward sequence of low salinity. The fish material is identified as Enchodus aff. E. gladiolus based on the presence of a small but well-developed post-apical barb, an anterior cutting edge, the crown is symmetrical in cross-section, have a sigmoidal profile, and bears strong ridges (=striations). The Peruvian material differs from the typical E. gladiolus teeth in having a faintly serrated anterior cutting edge which is absent in most specimens referred to E. gladiolus. We also highlight that taxonomic assignments made based on isolated teeth must be taken with care. Despite scarce, the material recovered denotes that the marine units of Peru can give valuable information about the Pacific fish fauna during the Late Cretaceous.

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Occurrence of the chimaeroid Ischyodus bifurcatus Case in the Cusseta Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Campanian) of western Georgia and its distribution

Journal of Paleontology ◽

10.1017/s0022336000033886 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 66 (2) ◽

pp. 347-350 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Gerard R. Case ◽

David R. Schwimmer

Keyword(s):

Late Cretaceous ◽

Upper Cretaceous ◽

Fish Fauna ◽

General Locality

We described a Late Cretaceous fish fauna from the Campanian-age Blufftown Formation in western Georgia (Case and Schwimmer, 1988), including 15 selachian taxa and 8 osteichthyans; however, at that time no chimaeras had been found in the region. A well-preserved specimen of Ischyodus bifurcatus Case, 1978, was subsequently collected from the same general locality described in the above study, but in the immediately superjacent Cusseta Formation. This is a note of the new occurrence of this fish and a summary of its known geographic and stratigraphic distribution (Appendix).

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Marine reptiles from the Nanaimo Group (Upper Cretaceous) of Vancouver Island

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e02-075 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 39 (11) ◽

pp. 1591-1603 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Elizabeth L Nicholls ◽

Dirk Meckert

Keyword(s):

British Columbia ◽

Late Cretaceous ◽

Upper Cretaceous ◽

New Genus ◽

Pacific Coast ◽

Vancouver Island ◽

The Other ◽

Western Interior Seaway ◽

Marine Reptiles ◽

The Pacific

A new fauna of fossil marine reptiles is described from the Late Cretaceous Nanaimo Group of Vancouver Island. The fossils are from the Haslam and Pender formations (upper Santonian) near Courtenay, British Columbia, and include elasmosaurid plesiosaurs, turtles, and mosasaurs. This is only the second fauna of Late Cretaceous marine reptiles known from the Pacific Coast, the other being from the Moreno Formation of California (Maastrichtian). The new Nanaimo Group fossils are some 15 million years older than those from the Moreno Formation. However, like the California fauna, there are no polycotylid plesiosaurs, and one of the mosasaurs is a new genus. This reinforces the provinciality of the Pacific faunas and their isolation from contemporaneous faunas in the Western Interior Seaway.

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Xiphactinus audax Leidy 1870 from the Puskwaskau Formation (Santonian to Campanian) of northwestern Alberta, Canada and the distribution of Xiphactinus in North America

Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology ◽

10.18435/b5h596 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 89 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Matthew J. Vavrek ◽

Alison M. Murray ◽

Phil R. Bell

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Cross Section ◽

Late Cretaceous ◽

Teleost Fish ◽

Species Level ◽

The Arctic ◽

Arctic Circle ◽

Marine Deposits ◽

Western Interior Basin ◽

Northern Portion

Xiphactinus is one of the largest teleost fish known from the Late Cretaceous of North America, and has been found across much of the Western Interior Basin. Despite extensive Late Cretaceous marine deposits occurring in Alberta, there has previously been only two possible records of Xiphactinus from the province, neither of which has been diagnosable to the species level. We describe here a portion of the lower jaws, including teeth, of Xiphactinus audax from northeast of Grande Prairie, Alberta. The fossil has large, thecodont teeth that are circular in cross section and lack any carinae, and are highly variable in their overall size. This fossil is the first diagnostic material of X. audax from Alberta, and extends the range of the species by over a thousand kilometres. During the Late Cretaceous, the area the fossil was found in was near the Arctic Circle, and represents an important datapoint within the poorly known, northern portion of the Western Interior Basin.

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Angiosperm wood from the Upper Cretaceous (Coniacian) of British Columbia, Canada

IAWA Journal ◽

10.1163/22941932-20170164 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (2) ◽

pp. 141-161 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Nathan A. Jud ◽

Elisabeth A. Wheeler ◽

Gar W. Rothwell ◽

Ruth A. Stockey

Keyword(s):

British Columbia ◽

North America ◽

Late Cretaceous ◽

Upper Cretaceous ◽

Vancouver Island ◽

Growth Rings ◽

Thin Sections ◽

Marine Deposits ◽

Dry Wood ◽

Cretaceous Deposits

Fossil angiosperm wood was collected from shallow marine deposits in the Upper Cretaceous (Coniacian) Comox Formation on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The largest specimen is a log at least 2 m long and 38 cm in diameter. Thin sections from a sample of this log reveal diffuseporous wood with indistinct growth rings and anatomy similar toParaphyllanthoxylon. Occasional idioblasts with dark contents in the rays distinguish this wood from previously knownParaphyllanthoxylonspecies and suggest affinity with Lauraceae. The log also includes galleries filled with dry-wood termite coprolites. This trunk reveals the presence of tree-sized angiosperms in what is now British Columbia, and the association of dry-wood termites with angiosperm woods by the Coniacian (89 Ma). To understand the significance of this discovery, we reviewed the record of Cretaceous woods from North America. Our analysis of the distribution of fossil wood occurrences from Cretaceous deposits supports the conclusion that there was a strong latitudinal gradient in both the size and distribution of angiosperm trees during the Late Cretaceous, with no reports of Cretaceous angiosperm trees north of 50°N paleo-latitude in North America. The rarity of angiosperm wood in the Cretaceous has long been used to support the idea that flowering plants were generally of low-stature for much of the Cretaceous; however, large-stature trees withParaphyllanthoxylon-like wood anatomy were widespread at lower–middle paleo-latitudes at least in North America during the Late Cretaceous. Thus, the presence of a largeParaphyllanthoxylonlog in the Comox Formation suggests that Vancouver Island has moved significantly northward since the Coniacian as indicated by other geological and paleobotanical studies.

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