Elasmobranch fishes from the Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous) of Patagonia, Argentina display an impressive palaeodiversity in high latitude deposits

Autor(en)

Arnaud Begat, Jürgen Kriwet, Francisco J. Goin, Javie N. Gelfo, Soledad Gouiric-Cavalli, Schultz Julia A., Thomas Martin

Abstrakt

The Cretaceous was an important period in the evolution of vertebrates, both on land
and in the oceans. This time coincides with the appearance of all modern
elasmobranch clades (sharks, rays, skates) that also adapted to new environments
(e.g., the open marine realm). Reconfiguration of landmasses resulting from the break-up of Gondwana during the Cretaceous opened new seaways enabling the
establishment of new migration routes and also created wide, shallow epicontinental
seas that are considered to shape diversity patterns of marine organisms positively.
Here, we present an elasmobranch fauna from the Cenomanian Mata Amarilla Fm. in
the Austral Basin of Argentine Patagonia (Santa Cruz Province) collected during an
Argentine-German field project funded by the National Geographic Society and
German Research Foundation (DFG). The Mata Amarilla Fm. is characterized by an
alternating sequence of continental and marine strata that yielded different vertebrate
assemblages. So far, at least ten different elasmobranch taxa including hitherto
unknown species based isolated teeth from marine sediments have been identified.
Isolated vertebral centra and dermal denticles of less taxonomic value additionally
were recovered. This unique elasmobranch assemblage is the most diverse
assemblage from Cretaceous deposits of South America up to now and contributes
significantly to our still poor knowledge on elasmobranchs in early Late Cretaceous
high latitudes and especially in South America. The strong taxonomic similarities of
elasmobranch faunas between Patagonia, North America and Europe indicate
migration patterns between the two hemispheres that most likely were enhanced by
the opening of the Atlantic.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Paläontologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Museo de La Plata, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Steinmann-Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Paläontologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Seiten

13

Anzahl der Seiten

1

Publikationsdatum

09-2021

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

105118 Paläontologie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/47dc55d0-fe13-4f59-a60f-749c2fb6bffc