Article

The Mosasaur collections of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris

March 2012
Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France 183(1):35-53

March 2012
183(1):35-53

DOI:10.2113/gssgfbull.183.1.35

Authors:

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle

Taking advantage of the venue in Paris of the Third Mosasaur Meeting (May 2010), the mosasaur collections of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) have been entirely checked and revised. The French holotypes have all been restored and most specimens kept at the MNHN have been placed in the Paleontology Gallery as part as a small exhibition organized especially for the meeting. The MNHN mosasaur collections include specimens from the 18th, 19th and 20th century from France, The Netherlands, Belgium, the United States of America, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Niger. Most of the mosasaur specimens discovered in France - including most holotypes - are kept in Paris. Besides the French types, the MNHN collections include several important historical specimens from abroad, the most famous being undoubtedly the Cuvier's 'Grand Animal Fossile des Carrières de Maestrichf, type specimen of Mosasaurus hoffmanni MANTELL, 1829, recognized as the first mosasaur to be named. This work aims to briefly present most of these specimens, with special focus on those found in France. The MNHN mosasaurid collections as a whole reflects the development of palaeontological researches in this Institution, from its foundation at the end of the 18,h century up to the present time.

The youngest records of mosasaurid reptiles from the Upper Cretaceous of the South-Western Desert in Egypt

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021

Mosasauroid squamates were abundant and had a worldwide distribution during the Late Cretaceous, but records from Sub-Saharan Africa are comparatively scanty and based mainly on fragmentary and isolated material. Here new mosasaur remains from the Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) of Dakhla Oasis in the South-Western Desert of Egypt are recorded, including: a small, fragmentary right dentary of an indeterminate mosasaurine with a single tooth preserved in situ and an isolated tooth crown of the genus Globidens. This material stems from fossiliferous, calcareous sandstones with intercalated shales that form the lower portion of the Dakhla Formation, known to be an intertidal to subtidal deposit. Previously recorded mosasaur remains from the Eastern Desert in Egypt included Globidens phosphaticus, Platecarpus sp., and Igdamanosaurus aegyptiacus. In Africa, mosasaurs of the Maastrichtian age have been recorded from Morocco, Nigeria, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Niger. The newly collected material from Dakhla Oasis currently constitutes the youngest record of mosasaurs in Egyp

The youngest records of mosasaurid reptiles from the Upper Cretaceous of the South-Western Desert in Egypt

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021

The youngest records of mosasaurid reptiles from the Upper Cretaceous of the South-Western Desert in Egypt

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021
P GEOLOGIST ASSOC

Late Eocene marginal marine deposits and paleoenvironment characterisation from the Maadi Formation (Northern Eastern Egypt)

Article

Jul 2021
P GEOLOGIST ASSOC

Two beds containing relatively thick and highly concentrated oyster shell banks occurring in the densely fossiliferous Wadi Al Abraq outcrop (Upper Eocene Maadi Formation, Cairo-Sukhna Road, Egypt). Such shell beds are almost monospecific. The upper level consists mainly of Ostrea clotbeyi Bellardi, topped by a considerable concentration of Carolia placunoides Cantraine, while in the lower level occurs Ostrea multicostata Deshayes. In both beds, the upper contact with the overlying marl bed (about 2 m thick) is sharp and sometimes erosive. Similarly, the contact with the underlying shale (1.5 m thick) is sharp and erosional. The shell beds are composed mainly of loosely packed oyster shells and their fragments (usually with a high proportion of disarticulated specimens) set in the sandy limestone matrix. The collected oysters show bioerosion and skeletobiont assemblages. Bioerosion trace fossils comprise ten ichnospecies while skeletozoans comprise five taxa. In general, shells of O. clotbeyi show a higher incidence of bioerosion than O. multicostata. The shells' chaotic orientation and their moderate fragmentation indicate that the shell bed formation was associated with high energy events. On the other hand, the low frequency of articulated specimens suggests that the shell beds are parautochthonous oyster banks' remnants. The taphonomic features of the studied assemblage indicate deposition in a shallow-water, wave-dominated environment.

Rediagnosis and redescription of Mosasaurus hoffmannii (Squamata: Mosasauridae) and an assessment of species assigned to the genus Mosasaurus

Article

Full-text available

May 2016
GEOL MAG

The large Late Cretaceous marine reptile Mosasaurus has remained poorly defined, in part owing to the unorthodox (by today's nomenclatural standards) manner in which the name was erected. The lack of a diagnosis accompanying the first use of either the genus or species names allowed the genus to become a catchall taxon, and subsequent diagnoses did little to refine the concept of Mosasaurus . We herein present emended diagnoses for both Mosasaurus and the type species M. hoffmannii , based solely on personal examination of the holotype, and a description of the type species based on personal examination of many specimens. Mosasaurus exhibits a premaxilla with a short, conical edentulous rostrum, a maxilla with little to no dorsal excavation for the external naris, posteromedial processes of the frontal that deeply invade the parietal, a quadrate taller than long with a short suprastapedial process and the stapedial pit dorsal to the mid-height of the shaft, an angular that is laterally visible for only a short length of the post-dentary unit, a very tall surangular, a humerus with the postglenoid process robust and offset and a distal width greater than the length, and a pubis with an anteriorly projecting tubercle. M. hoffmannii is distinguished from other species assignable to the genus by the anteroventral corner formed on the tympanic rim of the quadrate, the asymmetric carinae of the anterior marginal teeth dividing the tooth circumference into short labial and long lingual segments, and the proximal and distal expansion of the femur.

THE LOST WORLD OF GEORGES CUVIER: MOSASAURIDS FROM THE CAMPANIAN MEUDON CHALK (FRANCE)

Article

Jan 2015

Resumen The Late Campanian white Chalk of Meudon, a city located in the suburbs of Paris (France), has yielded during the 19th century several mosasaurid remains consisting mainly in isolated teeth, most being nowadays lost. These specimens, which history is associated to the most famous French palaeontologists of that time like Georges Cuvier, Paul Gervais and Albert Gaudry, represent the earliest mosasaurid discoveries from France. As such, they are precious and unique witnesses of a lost world. In this paper, an historical approach has been privileged, focusing on the history of their discovery and how they were originally perceived and interpreted by Cuvier and others. On a systematical point of view, the material is referred mostly to indeterminate species of the tylosaurine genus Hainosaurus but also of the plio- platecarpine Plioplatecarpus and possibly of the mosasaurine Prognathodon, attesting of the occurrence of the three major clades of mosasaurids in this Late Campanian marine vertebrate fauna of France.

Tylosaurine mosasaurs (Squamata) from the Late Cretaceous of northern Germany

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2015

Two genera of tylosaurine mosasaurs, Tylosaurus and Hainosaurus, are recorded for the first time from Germany. Tylosaurus sp. is represented by two isolated tooth crowns, originally described as Mosasaurus? alseni (here considered a nomen dubium) from the latest Santonian–Early Campanian, which are very similar to T. ivoensis and T. gaudryi. The material of Hainosaurus sp. comprises a maxillary with associated postorbitofrontal, two pterygoid teeth and several indeterminate cranial fragments. The specimen from the Late Campanian is slightly less derived than H. bernardi from the Maastrichtian in retaining labiolingually less compressed anterior maxillary teeth and unserrated pterygoid teeth with only very weak carinae. Despite only minor skeletal differences, the genus Hainosaurus is considered to be distinct from Tylosaurus because of its significant modification of the dental apparatus compared to the plesiomorphic condition in the latter. This dental morphology suggests a phylogenetic trend from a generalised-piercing marginal dentition in Tylosaurus towards the increasingly labiolingually compressed, symmetrical, strongly bicarinate cutting marginal teeth in Hainosaurus spp. from the Early through Late Campanian and Maastrichtian. A similar trend is also present in pterygoid teeth with very indistinct unserrated carinae in the Campanian Hainosaurus sp. towards serrated ones in the Maastrichtian H. bernardi. A short review indicates the presence of Hainosaurus in northern, central and western Europe (Sweden to Spain) since the Early Campanian, and the occurrence of Tylosaurus spp. in the same area until the Late Campanian. Hainosaurus persisted until the end of the Maastrichtian; outside Europe it may have been present in the Late Campanian of the USA and the Maastrichtian of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Judging from a simple, uni- to bicarinate, stoutly conical tooth morphology in aigialosaurs and very basal mosasaurs as well as phylogenetic patterns, the development of blade-like cutting tooth crowns appears to have been convergent in several clades of large-bodied Campanian–Maastrichtian mosasaurids. These include both mosasaurines ('Leiodon' mosasauroides, Prognathodon? sectorius, Prognathodon? kianda, Eremiasaurus heterodontus) and tylosaurines (Hainosaurus spp.).

Une fenêtre ouverte sur la collection paléontologique de Louis Boutillier (1816-1911) : aperçu des vertébrés mésozoïques - An open window into the palaeontological collection of Louis Boutillier (1816-1911): overview of the Mesozoic vertebrates

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2020

Arnaud Brignon

The Boutillier Collection, which is housed at the University of Caen Normandy (France), is one of the few palaeontological collections built up in Normandy during the 19th century to be still preserved, at least in part. This article presents a first biography of Louis Boutillier and details the historical context in which his collection was built up. A first review of the Mesozoic vertebrates kept in this collection is proposed. Alongside a set of pieces from renowned foreign sites such as Lyme Regis in England, Holzmaden in Germany or Sunderland in the United States, this inventory highlights several French regional faunal ensembles, some of which come from formations that are today inaccessible. The specimens in the Boutillier collection come in particular from the Upper Muschelkalk (Upper Anisian/Ladinian) limestones of the Lunéville area in Lorraine or Oberbronn in Alsace, the Lower Toarcian Argiles à Poissons of La Caine, the Callovo-Oxfordian formations of the Calvados coast, the Kimmeridgian Marnes et Calcaires à Nanogyra virgula of Alligny-Cosne, the Kimmeridgian clays of Le Havre region, the Upper Jurassic formations of Boulogne-sur-Mer, the Albian formations of Eastern France and the Upper Cretaceous Chalk of Normandy and the Paris region. Among the most remarkable pieces that have been found in the collection is one of the vertebrae of the “Alligny Megalosaurus”, discovered by the physician and naturalist Charles Roussel de Vauzème and reported by Paul Gervais in 1848, which turned out to belong to a colymbosaurine plesiosaur. It was also rediscovered one of the first remains of pterosaurs found in France. This specimen, found by Louis Boutillier himself in the Kimmeridgian of the Le Havre region, was first reported by Gustave Lennier in a book published in 1868. -- Résumé -- La collection Boutillier conservée à l'Université de Caen Normandie (France) fait partie des rares collections paléontologiques consti-tuées en Normandie au XIX e siècle à avoir été sauvegardées, tout au moins en partie, jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Cet article présente une pre-mière biographie de Louis Boutillier et détaille le contexte historique dans lequel sa collection fut constituée. Une première revue des vertébrés mésozoïques qu'elle contient est proposée. A côté d'un ensemble de pièces provenant de sites étrangers réputés comme Lyme Regis en Angleterre, Holzmaden en Allemagne ou Sunderland aux Etats-Unis, cet inventaire met en évidence plusieurs ensembles fau-niques régionaux français, dont certains proviennent de formations aujourd'hui difficiles d'accès, voire inaccessibles. Les spécimens de la collection Boutillier proviennent notamment des calcaires du Muschelkalk supérieur (Anisien supérieur/Ladinien) de la région de Lunéville en Lorraine ou d'Oberbronn en Alsace, des Argiles à Poissons du Toarcien inférieur de La Caine, des formations cal-lovo-oxfordiennes des côtes du Calvados, des Marnes et Calcaires à Nanogyra virgula du Kimméridgien d'Alligny-Cosne, des argiles kimméridgiennes de la région du Havre, des formations du Jurassique supérieur de Boulogne-sur-Mer, des formations albiennes de l'est de la France et de la craie du Crétacé supérieur de Normandie et de la région parisienne. Parmi les pièces les plus remarquables qui ont pu être retrouvées est à signaler une des vertèbres du « mégalosaure d'Alligny », découvertes par le médecin et naturaliste Charles Roussel de Vauzème et signalées par Paul Gervais en 1848, qui s'avèrent appartenir à un plésiosaure colymbosaurine. A été également redécouvert un des premiers restes de ptérosaures trouvés en France, identifiable de manière incontestable. Ce spécimen, trouvé par Louis Boutillier en personne dans le Kimméridgien de la région du Havre, fut signalé pour la première fois par Gustave Lennier dans un ouvrage publié en 1868.

New remains of Mosasauroidea (Reptilia, Squamata) from the Upper Cretaceous (Santonian) of Aude, southern France

Article

Full-text available

May 2024
CRETACEOUS RES

New mosasaurid remains (Squamata) were collected from various Santonian localities in the Sougraignearea (Aude Department, southern France). Cranial bones, some vertebrae, two scapulae and a phalanx areassigned to the plioplatecarpine Platecarpus cf. tympaniticus, while pelvic bones, two vertebrae and afemur (?) are referred to Tylosaurus sp. Tooth marks made by sharks, teleosts or mosasaurids areobserved on the mosasaurid vertebrae. These Santonian (86.3e83.6 Ma) Platecarpus occurrences, knownsince almost one century, are the oldest from Europe. This deposit also yielded some elasmobranch teeth,belonging to taxa such as Squalicorax kaupi, Cretoxyrhina mantelli, Cretolamna sp. and Polyacrodus bra-banticus. A review of plioplatecarpine palaeobiogeographical distribution through Late Cretaceous sug-gests that it follows that of other mosasaurid clades, reaching a worldwide distribution by Maastrichtiantime, probably favored by marine routes largely opened at this time

A Prognathodontin Mosasaur from the Maastrichtian of the Dakhla Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2023

Mosasaurs were diverse in the Upper Cretaceous in Africa, but relatively little is known about the mosasaur fauna of Egypt. Here, associated teeth and postcranial skeletal elements are reported for a mosasaur from the Maastrichtian Dakhla Shale of the Dakhla Oasis. The specimen includes tooth crowns, cervical, dorsal, and caudal vertebrae, and ribs. Teeth and bones exhibit features allowing referral to Prognathodontini. The teeth are relatively straight and blunt, suggesting affinities with Prognathodon overtoni or P. currii. Prognathodontins were important predators in the Maastrichtian of Africa, previously being recorded in Morocco, Congo, and Angola.

Flora da Serra do Cipó, Minas Gerais: Celastraceae Sensu Lato

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2015

(Flora of the Serra do Cipó, Minas Gerais: Celastraceae sensu lato). The study of the family Celastraceae is a part of the project of "Flora of Serra do Cipó, Minas Gerais, Brazil". In its most recent delimitation, Celastraceae sensu lato encompass the Hippocrateaceae, a group already addressed in a previous survey to the Serra do Cipó, the later with three genera (Cheiloclinium , Peritassa and Tontelea), with four species. To these taxa are now summoned the species of Celastraceae sensu stricto, with the genus Maytenus (seven species), and Plenckia (one species), besides two species representing two genera (Pristimera and Salacia) of traditional Hippocrateaceae collected after the publication of the Hippocrateaceae survey. As a summary, Celastraceae sensu lato is represented in Serra do Cipó by seven genera and 14 species. Keys are presented to the genera and species of Celastraceae sensu lato, as well as descriptions, illustrations and comments on the geographic distribution, phenology and variability of the species of Celastraceae sensu stricto (previously untreated). Comments and an updated list of exsiccate of “Hippocrateaceae” are also provided. Additionally, we propose the synonymy of Maytenus salicifolia Reissek under M. gonoclada Mart.

Co-Ossification of Vertebrae in Mosasaurs (Squamata, Mosasauridae); Evidence of Habitat Interactions and Susceptibility to Bone Disease

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2015

Pathologies involving the fusion of mosasaur vertebrae have been documented in the literature since the late 1870s. Although some instances can clearly be demonstrated to be the result of an attack by another predator, usually a shark, the source of the pathology is more difficult to discern in other specimens. Here we discuss the evidence for pathologies as the result of interactions with the mosasaur's habitat and the apparent susceptibility of certain kinds of disease affecting the skeleton as preserved in the specimens.

A new look at Faujas de Saint-Fond's fantastic story on the provenance and acquisition of the type specimen of Mosasaurus hoffmanni MANTELL, 1829

Article

Mar 2012

Based on continued archive and literature research, the fantastic tale of the acquisition of what was to become the type specimen of Mosasaurus hoffmanni Mantell, 1829 –the first mosasaurid specimen to be named– told by the geologist B. Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741–1819) in his book Histoire naturelle de la Montagne Saint-Pierre de Maestricht issued in ten parts between 1798 and 1803, is retold and demystified. Significantly, Faujas ‘forgot’ to mention the real reason for his stay at Maastricht, namely his appointment as one of the four commissioners charged with inventory and confiscation of objects of science and art in the conquered countries. Faujas arrived at Maastricht about two months after the fortress had been taken by French troops on 4 November 1794, while the mosasaur skull was confiscated four days later; so that he never was a direct witness of the story he told. The decree issued by the Convention Nationale announcing the fossil’s destination to be the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) in Paris was enacted on 12 November 1794. It appears that the representative of the people A.-L. de Frécine (1751–1804) was involved in the confiscation and withdrawal of the Grand animal de Maestricht from its legal owner, the clergyman Th. J. Godding (1722–1797). In a reclamation request (written c. 1815), his single heiress, R. Godding, stated that six soldiers appeared with a carriage to collect the ‘petrified crocodile’ by force of arms at Godding’s country house, acting under orders of Frécine. The definite proof of Faujas’s unreliability is given by his co-commissioner, the botanist A. Thouin (1747–1824). In Thouin’s memoirs, Faujas is depicted as a great liar and storyteller, fond of embellishing stories. Obviously, Faujas falsified the truth to disguise the fact that looting from a private person had occurred, which was unlawful, even in wartime. Faujas also used to make propaganda for the French army, which is typical of the spirit of those revolutionary years. Besides, he was rather inaccurate, his book containing a lot of mistakes that were easy to check. Finally, it seems that J. L. Hoffmann (1710–1782), a famous local fossil collector presented by Faujas as the legal owner of this particular skull specimen, never actually owned it. Here we summarise our previous findings and include a few additional ones, which lead to the conclusion that it must have been patriotism as well as his great fancy for story telling that induced Faujas to falsify the facts. In 2009, the famous war trophy temporarily returned to Maastricht, on loan from the MNHN to the Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht, within the framework of an exhibit during the international Darwin Year, entitled, Darwin, Cuvier et le Grand Animal de Maestricht. Of course, the mosasaur owes its great scientific value to G. Cuvier (1769–1832), who stated that, “above all, the precise determination of the famous animal from Maestricht seems to us as important for the theory of zoological laws, as for the history of the globe”. However, by embellishing the story, Faujas added a substantial supplementary cultural value to the fossil.

A Small, Exquisitely Preserved Specimen of Mosasaurus missouriensis (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from the Upper Campanian of the Bearpaw Formation, Western Canada, and the First Stomach Contents for the Genus

Article

Jul 2014

A new, exquisitely preserved specimen of a small mosasaur, referable to Mosasaurus missouriensis, is reported from the Bearpaw Formation (ca. 75 Ma, upper Campanian) of southern Alberta, Canada. Many calcified cartilaginous elements, including tracheal rings and the sternum, are preserved. The sternum most closely resembles that of Clidastes propython, bearing five shallow sternal rib facets on each side. Our comparative study of the new material with the holotype, referred material, and the genotype M. hoffmannii is congruent with the preexisting hypothesis that M. missouriensis and M. hoffmannii are phylogenetically more closely related to each other than to the other congeners, in spite of a temporal gap of nearly 10 million years between them. Also preserved with the mosasaur, inside its ribcage and around the specimen, are well-preserved aulopiform fish bones, including a skull. The fish skull is punctured and its centra truncated, suggesting macrophagy was employed by M. missouriensis despite the apparent lack of tooth wear. A sympatric specimen of Prognathodon overtoni is known to have consumed a sea turtle as well as fishes, and consistently exhibits apical wear across marginal teeth. We hypothesize that coexistence of these apex predators in the Bearpaw Sea was possible because of niche partitioning. Finally, the mosasaur carcass was likely scavenged by at least three lamniform sharks, based on their shed teeth and a series of truncated transverse processes on the mosasaur tail.

A giant mosasaur (Reptilia, Squamata) with an unusually twisted dentition from the Argille Scagliose Complex (late Campanian) of Northern Italy

Article

May 2014

A snout of a large-sized mosasaur from the Upper Cretaceous pelagic-turbiditic deposits of the Argille Scagliose Complex of Northern Italy is described. Nannofossil assemblages from the immediately overlying strata belong to the late but not latest Campanian calcareous nannofossil standard zone CC22, based on the presence of Uniplanarius trifidus and Eiffellithus eximius. The specimen includes a broken premaxilla, the anterior part of the maxillae and dentaries in articulation: preserved teeth show distinctive characters previously unreported in other mosasaurs. Although the marginal teeth show a posterior migration of the labial carina along the jaw length – diagnostic of derived mosasaurines – they are unusual in the combination of features, including anteriormost teeth with asteroid cross section followed by teeth with crowns twisted labioposteriorly from one-third to one-half of their height toward the apices. A comparison between the new specimen and Mosasaurus hoffmanni skulls suggests an estimated skull length comparable with some of the largest known mosasaurids. Consequently, the new specimen represents the largest mosasaur and the largest fossil reptile found in Italy to date. Several lines of dental evidence also support the interpretation of the Italian mosasaur as a macrophagous generalist predator. Paleogeographic reconstruction for the Argille Scagliose Complex as well as the occurrence of typical low- to mid-latitude nannofossils support a southern Tethyan margin affinity of the taxon.

Mesozoic and Cenozoic squamates of Europe

Article

Dec 2013

Jean-Claude Rage

Squamates first appeared in Europe in the Middle Jurassic. They were lizards that already included some crown-group members. Faunas of the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous were more or less a continuation of the Middle Jurassic assemblage. The early Late Cretaceous was characterised by a peculiar fauna of marine pythonomorphs, while terrestrial forms were rare. In the subsequent levels of the Late Cretaceous, marine forms were mainly mosasaurids; terrestrial assemblages heralding modern ones began to take form during the Campanian-Maastrichtian. The Cretaceous-Tertiary event did not strongly affect squamates in Europe. After poor Paleocene faunas, a big wave of dispersals reached Europe during a marked rise in temperature at the beginning of the Eocene (MP 7). The Eocene fauna was rich, diverse and of tropical type. In western Europe, a sharp extinction event ('Grande Coupure') eliminated most squamates at the end of the Eocene, but its impact in central and eastern Europe is unknown. The Oligocene fauna was transitional between the 'old' Eocene and the modern Miocene faunas. By the late early Miocene (MN 3-MN 4), the fauna markedly changed when an important wave of dispersals entered Europe during a climatic optimum. From the late middle Miocene onward, the temperature has dropped. As a consequence, faunas became less rich and regionalisation occurred. Numerous extinctions and withdrawals took place during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene, leaving an impoverished fauna in Europe.

A taxonomic revision of the genus Flagenium Baill. (Rubiaceae–Octotropideae)

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2007
BOT J LINN SOC

A taxonomic revision of the genus Flagenium Baill. is presented. Flagenium is endemic to Madagascar and comprises six species; three new species are described here (F. farafanganensis, F. petrikensis, and F. pedunculatum) and one species (F. arboreum) is transferred into synonymy. Each species is fully described, and summaries of distribution, habitat and ecology, and phenology are given; conservation assessments are provided for each species. Flagenium is characterized by having ovaries with at least two erect and two pendulous ovules per locule, which, depending on the species, can display an additional two to four horizontal ovules per locule arranged between the uppermost and lowermost ovules. In addition, Flagenium has a longitudinally ten-ribbed fruit. These features are potentially unique within the Octotropideae. © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 155, 557–570.

Rediscovery of “Liodon” asiaticum Répelin, 1915, a Mosasaurini (Squamata, Mosasauridae, Mosasaurinae) from the Upper Cretaceous of the vicinity of Jerusalem – Biostratigraphical insights from microfossils

Article

May 2021

Briefly mentioned in 1915 by the palaeontologist Répelin, the mosasaurid Liodon asiaticum Répelin, 1915 was found by a missionary to Africa, Father Ruffier, in Late Cretaceous strata near Jerusalem (without further details on the exact provenance). This material was never described in detail, figured, or revised and was recently rediscovered in the collections of the Muséum d’histoire naturelle of Marseille (Provence, southern France). Here we describe and figure for the first time this material, which now includes more specimens than the original lot mentioned by Répelin, and we propose new systematic assignments for the identified specimens. First of all we demonstrate that the five original vertebrae briefly described by Répelin represent a composite assemblage and are not diagnostic at the specific level. Thus Liodon asiaticum should be considered a nomem dubium. The most complete and diagnostic specimen belongs to a Mosasaurini (Mosasaurinae) incertae sedis, close to Mosasaurus Conybeare, 1822 and Plotosaurus Camp, 1951, as shown by the unique configuration of its frontal-parietal-postorbitofrontal complex. The two other specimens are identified as indeterminate Mosasaurinae. The study of several groups of microfossils (calcareous nannofossils, planktonic foraminifera and palynomorphs) found in the white chalk preserved with most of the bones constrains the age of these mosasaurid remains to the lower part of the middle Campanian (C. plummerae (Gandolfi, 1955) / G. rosetta (Carsey, 1926) and CC18 / UC14-15a Zones). This corresponds to the local Mishash Formation that crops out extensively East of Jerusalem (Mount of Olives and surroundings). Father Ruffier probably collected these bones in one of the outcrops of this formation, possibly not very far from where he worked and lived (Saint-Anne Community in Jerusalem). These chalky levels, common in the Middle East, represent a shallow and rather open marine environment, possibly near-shore.

Les premières découvertes de vertébrés jurassiques aux Vaches Noires (Calvados, France) - The early discoveries of Jurassic vertebrate remains in the Vaches Noires (Normandy, France)

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Dec 2020

Arnaud Brignon

Cet article retrace l'histoire de la paléontologie des vertébrés dans le Jurassique des Vaches Noires avant les années 1850. Les collections d'histoire naturelle du XVIII e et du début du XIX e siècle ayant possédé des restes de vertébrés de ce site sont passées en revue. Parmi les personnalités qui ont marqué l'histoire de ces découvertes, Charles Bacheley (1716-1795) fait figure de pionnier. Bien que sa collection d'ossements des Vaches Noires fût rendue célèbre par Georges Cuvier, Bacheley est longtemps resté inconnu des historiens des sciences. Cet abbé d'origine augeronne évoqua dès 1778 la possibilité que ces restes aient appartenu à des animaux sans analogue vivant. Il fut surtout le premier en France à découvrir des restes de dinosaures de manière incontestable. La contribution d'un autre collectionneur de fossiles, Félix de Roissy (1771-1843), est également mise en évidence. L'histoire familiale de cet aristocrate parisien, féru de paléontologie, était étroitement liée au château de Villers-sur-Mer. Ses séjours fréquents dans cette localité lui permirent d'acquérir des pièces importantes qui furent étudiées par son ami Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville et plus tard par Jacques-Amand et Eugène Eudes-Deslongchamps. Enfin, le rôle de Pierre Tesson (1797-1874) dans l'histoire de ces découvertes est souligné. Ce dernier était considéré en son temps comme l'un des plus grands collectionneurs de fossiles en Normandie. La vente de sa collection au British Museum à Londres fut considérée comme une perte considérable par la communauté scientifique normande. Rétrospectivement, ce transfert outre-Manche aura permis sa sauvegarde lorsque l'on sait que les collections paléontologiques conservées à Caen furent détruites durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. -- Abstract. -- This article traces the history of vertebrate paleontology, before the 1850s, in the Jurassic of the Vaches Noires, between Dives-sur-Mer and Villers-sur-Mer. It highlights the role of 18th century natural history cabinets and the collections of some learned amateurs in the early 19th century. Among the personalities who contributed to the history of these discoveries, Charles Bacheley (1716-1795) was a pioneer. Although Georges Cuvier made famous his collection of reptile bones from the Vaches Noires, Bacheley remained unknown to historians of sciences for a long time. This abbot from the Pays d'Auge evoked as early as 1778 the possibility that these remains may have belonged to animals with no living analogues. He was above all the first one in France to discover dinosaur remains. This article also presents the contribution of another fossil collector, Félix de Roissy (1771-1843). The family history of this Parisian aristocrat, who was a keen palaeontologist, was closely linked to the castle of Villers-sur-Mer. His frequent stays in this locality enabled him to acquire importantspecimens, which were studied by his friend Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville and later by J acques-Amand and Eugène Eudes-Deslongchamps. Finally, the role of Pierre Tesson (1797-1874) is highlighted. He was considered in his time to be one of the greatest collectors of fossils in Normandy. The sale of his collection to the Britih Museum in London was regarded as a considerable loss by the Norman scientific community. In retrospect, this transfer across the Channel enabled the Tesson collection to be saved when it is known that the palaeontological collections kept in Caen were destroyed during World War II.

The Mosasaur Fossil Record Through the Lens of Fossil Completeness

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2018

The quality of the fossil record is essential for interpreting the significance of macroevolutionary patterns. Palaeodiversity is filtered through geological and human processes, and efforts to correct for these biases are part of a debate concerning the role of sampling proxies and standardisation in models of biodiversity. Here, we analyse the fossil record of mosasaurs in terms of fossil completeness as a measure of fossil quality, using three novel metrics of fossil completeness for a compilation of 4,083 specimens. All metrics correlate with each other. A new qualitative measure of character completeness (QCM), correlates with the phylogenetic character completeness metric. Mean completeness by species decreases with specimen count, and average completeness by substage varies significantly. Mean specimen completeness is higher for species-named fossils than those identified to genus and family. The effect of tooth-only specimens is analysed. Importantly, we find that completeness of species does not correlate with completeness of specimens. Completeness varies by palaeogeography, North American specimens showing higher completeness than those from Eurasia and Gondwana. These metrics can be used to identify exceptional preservation, with specimen completeness varying significantly by both formation and lithology. The Belgian Ciply Formation displays the highest completeness, and clay lithologies show higher completeness values than others. Neither species diversity nor sea level correlates significantly with fossil completeness. A GLS analysis using multiple variables agrees with this result. However, GLS shows that two variables have significant predictive value for modelling averaged diversity, namely sea level and mosasaur- and plesiosaur-bearing formations, the latter of which is shown to be redundant with diversity. Mosasaur completeness is not driven by sea level, nor is completeness limiting the diversity signal in the mosasaur record.

Maastrichtian marine reptiles of the Mediterranean Tethys: A palaeobiogeographical approach

Article

Jan 2013

Nathalie Bardet

A global comparison of coeval Maastrichtian marine reptiles (squamates, plesiosaurs, chelonians ana crocodyliformes) of Europe, New Jersey, northwestern Africa and Middle-East has been performed. More than twenty outcrops and fifty species (half of them being mosasaurids) have been recorded. PEA and Cluster Analysis have been performed using part of this database and have revealed that marine reptile faunas (especially the mosasaurid ones) from the Mediterranean Tethys are clearly segregated into two different palaeobiogeographical provinces: 1) The northern Tethys margin province (New Jersey and Europe), located around palaeolatitudes 30-40°N and developping into warm-temperate environments, is dominated by mosasaurid squamates and chelonioid chelonians; it is characterized by the mosasaurid association of Mosasaurus hoffmanni and Prognathodon sectorius. 2) The southern Tethys margin province ( Brazil and the Arabo-African domain), located between palaeolatitudes 20°N-20°S and developping into intertropical environments, is dominated by mosasaurid squamates and bothremydid chelonians; it is characterized by the mosasaurid association of Globidens phosphaticus as well as by Halisaurus arambourgi and Platecarpus (?) ptychodon (Arabo-African domain). These faunal differences are interpreted as revealing palaeoecological preferences probably linked to differences in palaeolatitudinal gradients and/or to palaeocurrents. On a palaeoecological point on view and concerning mosasaurids, the mosasaurines (Prognathodon, Mosasaurus, Globidens and Carinodens) prevail on both margins but with different species. The ichthyophageous plioplatecarpines Plioplatecarpus (Northern margin) and Platecarpus (?) ptychodon (Southern margin) characterise respectively each margin. The halisaurine Halisaurus is present on both margins but with different species. Of importance, the tylosaurines remain currently unknown on the southern Tethys margin and are restricted to higher palaeolatitudes. Chelonians (bothremydids and chelonioids) are respective of each margin, which probably indicates lower dispersal capabilities compared to mosasaurids. The relative scarcity of plesiosaurs and crocodyliformes could be linked to different ecological preferences. The noteworthy crocodyliforme diversity increase in the Palaeogene is probably linked to mosasaurid extinction during the biological crisis of the K/Pg boundary.

Faujas de Saint-Fond, Reinwardt, Cuvier et les poissons fossiles du Crétacé de la « Montagne Saint-Pierre » de Maastricht (Pays-Bas)

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2015

Arnaud Brignon

ABSTRACT Faujas de Saint-Fond, Reinwardt, Cuvier and the fossil fishes from the Cretaceous of Sint Pietersberg of Maastricht (The Netherlands). The first paleoichthyological discoveries from the type Maastrichtian area in the late 18th and early 19th centuries are reviewed. After the taking of Maastricht in November 1794 by the French revolutionary army in war against the Stadholder, William V, several collections of “petrifications” from the underground quarries of Sint Pietersberg were acquired by Augustin-Lucie de Frécine, Représentant du Peuple, and by André Thoüin and Barthélémy Faujas de Saint-Fond, both Commissioners charged for collecting objects of science and art in the conquered countries. These fossils were sent to Paris in 1795 and subsequently described and figured between 1799 and 1803 by Faujas de Saint-Fond in his Histoire naturelle de la Montagne de Saint-Pierre de Maestricht. Unpublished drawings by Nicolas Maréchal (1753-1802), painter at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris) as well as new bibliographic data concerning Faujas de Saint-Fond’s book are presented here for the first time. The fish remains (Chondrichthyes and Actinopterygii) depicted in this book are reviewed. Searches in the Collection of Paleontology of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris) have yielded the rediscovery of both teeth of Squalicorax pristodontus (Agassiz, 1835) and the tooth of Cretolamna lata (Agassiz, 1838) figured by Faujas de Saint-Fond. These historic fossils are the first specimens of the genus Squalicorax Whitley, 1939 et Cretolamna Glickman, 1958 figured in a publication. In addition, an unpublished drawing made in 1811 when Cuvier was on a tour of inspection of the establishments of public instruction in Holland, enables to retrace the history of the holotype of Enchodus faujasi Agassiz, 1843. This specimen was originally kept in the National Cabinet of Natural History in Amsterdam, established by the former King of Holland, Louis Bonaparte. Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt was the director of this Cabinet. He offered the fossil to the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris) where it has been kept since then. Résumé Les premières découvertes paléoichthyologiques à la fin du xviiie et au tout début du xixe siècle dans la région stratotype du Maastrichtien sont passées en revue. Après la prise de Maastricht en novembre 1794 par l’armée révolutionnaire française en guerre contre le Stathouder Guillaume V, des collections de « pétrifications » des carrières souterraines de Sint Pietersberg furent acquises par le Représentant du Peuple Augustin-Lucie de Frécine et les Commissaires chargés de rechercher des objets de science et d’art dans les pays conquis, André Thoüin et Barthélémy Faujas de Saint-Fond. Ces fossiles, envoyés à Paris en 1795, furent ensuite décrits et figurés entre 1799 et 1803 par ce dernier dans son Histoire naturelle de la Montagne de Saint-Pierre de Maestricht. Des documents iconographiques inédits de la main de Nicolas Maréchal (1753-1802), dessinateur au Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris) ainsi que de nouvelles données bibliographiques sur cet ouvrage sont présentés ici pour la première fois. Les restes de poissons (Chondrichthyes et Actinopterygii) figurés dans cet ouvrage sont révisés. Des recherches dans la collection de Paléontologie du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris) ont permis de redécouvrir les deux dents de Squalicorax pristodontus (Agassiz, 1835) et la dent de Cretolamna lata (Agassiz, 1838) figurées par Faujas de Saint-Fond. Ces pièces historiques seraient les premiers spécimens figurés des genres Squalicorax Whitley, 1939 et Cretolamna Glickman, 1958. Par ailleurs, un dessin inédit, réalisé en 1811, quand Cuvier effectuait sa tournée d’inspection des établissements d’instruction publique en Hollande, permet de retracer l’histoire de l’holotype d’Enchodus faujasi Agassiz, 1843. Cette pièce était à l’origine conservée dans le Cabinet national d’Histoire naturelle à Amsterdam qui avait été créé sous l’impulsion de l’ancien roi de Hollande, Louis Bonaparte. Cet établissement était dirigé par Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt. Ce dernier offrit le fossile au Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle où il est toujours conservé aujourd’hui.

La plate-forme carbonatée du Cénomano-Turonien de la région d'Erfoud-Errachidia (Sud-Est marocain): Stratigraphie et paléoenvironnements

Article

Full-text available

Jul 1985

New material of Carinodens (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from the Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) phosphates of Morocco

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2008

Co-ossified vertebrae of mosasaurs and cetaceans: Implications for the mode of locomotion of extinct marine reptiles

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2001

Eric Mulder

Co-ossified pygal and caudal vertebrae in Late Cretaceous mosasaurs from the southeast Netherlands, northeast Belgium, and North America are compared with lumbar and caudal vertebrae from fossil and extant whales. Both infectious spondylitis and idiopathic vertebral hyperostosis afflicted these marine tetrapods. The causes of the infectious disease and of the idiopathic disease are similar in the compared life forms. The location of idiopathic hyperostosis along the vertebral column implicates axial locomotion in mosasaurs, as in whales.

La "ruée vers les phosphates" du dix-neuvième siècle : Une aubaine pour la paléontologie des vertébrés crétacés

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2006

Eric Buffetaut

Résumé -Les découvertes paléontologiques exceptionnelles réalisées lors de la phase d'exploitation à grande échelle des phosphorites tertiaires du Quercy, au XIX ème siècle, sont un aspect d'un phénomène plus large lié à la recherche et à l'exploitation des phosphates de calcium sédimentaires, à des fins de fabrication d'engrais, dans diverses régions d'Europe à cette époque. Cette activité extractrice a très souvent conduit à des découvertes paléontologiques importantes. Les cas de trois dépôts phosphatés crétacés (Cambridge Greensand d'Angleterre, Sables verts des Ardennes et de la Meuse, Craie phosphatée de Picardie) illustrent comment de nombreux restes de vertébrés fossiles furent découverts et étudiés à l'occasion de l'exploitation des phosphates, qui ne dura que quelques décennies. Abstract -The exceptional palaeontological discoveries made when the Tertiary phosphorites of Quercy (south-western France) were intensively exploited during the 19th century are only one aspect of a larger phenomenon linked to the discovery and exploitation of sedimentary calcium carbonates, used to produce fertiliser, in various parts of Europe at that time. This activity very often led to important palaeontological discoveries. The cases of three Cretaceous phosphate deposits (Cambridge Greensand of England, Greensand of Ardennes and Meuse in eastern France, Phosphatic Chalk of Picardy in northern France) illustrate how abundant remains of fossil vertebrates were found and studied in the course of phosphate exploitation, which lasted only for a few decades.

Transatlantic latest Cretaceous Mosasaurs (Reptilia, Lacertilia) from the Maastrichtian type area and New Jersey

Article

Full-text available

Sep 1999

Eric Mulder

Cranial and postcranial elements of the mosasaurid reptiles Mosasaurus hoffmanni Mantell 1829 and Plioplatecarpus marshi Dollo 1882 from the Maastrichtian type area, and of Mosasaurus maximus Cope 1869 and Plioplatecarpus depressus (Cope 1869) from New Jersey are compared. Views held by previous authors are discussed. It is concluded that these European and North American taxa are conspecific.

L’évolution paléoenvironnementale des faunes de poissons du Crétacé supérieur du bassin du Tafilalt et des régions avoisinantes (Sud-Est du Maroc) : implications paléobiogéographiques

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2001

Palaeoenvironmental evolution of the fish assemblages from the Late Cretaceous of the Tafilalt basin and surrounding areas, southeastern Morocco: palaeogeographical implications. A critical revision of published data along with new field data allow to draw up the succession of the fish faunas from the Lower Cenomanian to the Lower Turonian in the Tafilalt basin and surrounding areas (southeast Morocco). The analysis of these faunas shows changes from freshwater to marine palaeoenvironments. The palaeogeographic distribution of some taxa is discussed. It shows that the crossing of strictly freshwater organisms between Africa and South America was likely impossible at the time of the formation of the deposits resting around the Tafilalt basin and named ‘Kem Kem beds’. The Cenomano-Turonian transgression reached the Erfoud– Errachidia carbonate platform from the Central Tethys, and then connected the central Atlantic.

The marine vertebrate faunas from the Late Cretaceous phosphates of Syria

Article

Full-text available

May 2000
GEOL MAG

Marine vertebrate faunas from the latest Cretaceous phosphates of the Palmyrides Chain of Syria are described for the first time. Recent fieldwork in the phosphatic deposits of the Palmyra area (mines of Charquieh and Khneifiss, outcrops of Bardeh, Soukkari and Soukhneh) have yielded a rich and diversified assemblage of marine vertebrates, including more than 50 species of chondrichthyes, osteichthyes, squamates, chelonians, plesiosaurians and crocodilians. Selachians are the most abundant and diverse component of the faunas and are represented by at least 34 species of both sharks and rays. Actinopterygians include representatives of six families, the most common being the enchodontids. Squamates are known by six mosasaurid species and an indeterminate varanoid. Chelonians are represented by at least two bothremydids and two chelonioids. Finally, elasmosaurid plesiosaurs and indeterminate crocodilians are also present in the fossil assemblages. The difference in faunal composition observed between the sites is interpreted as being due to palaeoecological preferences related to the Hamad Uplift palaeostructure. The marine vertebrate faunas of Syria show close affinities with those of the latest Cretaceous phosphatic deposits of North Africa and the Middle East and are typical of the southern Tethyan realm. From a biostratigraphical point of view, the selachians are the only suitable material to provide elements of an answer to the long debated question of the age of the Syrian Senonian phosphates. They suggest an Early Maastrichtian age for most of the phosphates of the Palmyrides Chain.

Le Cénomanien et le Turonien de la Plate-forme Préafricaine du Maroc

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2004

The Moroccan Cretaceous North Saharian Platform is classically divided into three formations: Ifezouane (Albian?), Aoufous (Albo-Cenomanian) and Akrabou (Cenomano-Turonian). These deposits reflect a fluviatile or deltaic environment in the Albian?, evolving to a lagoonal environment or a paralic sabkha in the Albian and Middle–Late Cenomanian, and to an open marine platform during the Late Cenomanian and Turonian. This paper deals mainly with the Akrabou Formation, which consists of massive carbonates, divided into four lithostratigraphic units (C1, C2, T1 and T2) bounded by regional unconformities, and organized in four cyclic sequences respectively. Units C1 and C2 are dated as Late Cenomanian, based on foraminifera and ostracodes. Units T1 and T2 are attributed to the Turonian. The Cenomanian/Turonian boundary is a sedimentological and ecological unconformity. The correlations between the sections studied indicate that considerable subsidence took place in the Goulmima-Tadighoust area, at the centre of the basin. This study has also revealed that the Moroccan Preafrican Platform was connected to the Tethyan realm in Late Cenomanian and remained as such through Turonian. However, a minor connection also existed with the Central Atlantic.

Reptilian assemblages from the latest Cretaceous - Palaeogene phosphates of Morocco: From Arambourg to present time

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2010
Ichnos

Arambourg was the first to conduct methodical vertebrate palaeontological studies in the Oulad Abdoun and Ganntour phosphatic basins of Morocco between the 1930s and 1950s. As early as 1935, he identified the main stratigraphical levels of the phosphatic series, characterizing them by a specific association of vertebrates (mainly selachians), and proposed stratigraphical correlations between the phosphatic levels of these two basins. During the last decade, due to a French-Moroccan program of collaboration, vertebrate fossils have been collected in great abundance. Here we present an updated overview of the latest Cretaceous to Ypresian reptilian faunas from the Oulad Abdoun and Ganntour basins, on the basis of published data and new field records. In addition to advances in the study of the already known taxa (i.e., squamates, crocodyliforms, plesiosaurs), recent field works reveal new major reptilian taxa that were unknown (or undescribed) at Arambourg's time: very abundant and diversified marine chelonians (Maastrichtian to Ypresian), scarce dinosaurs and pterosaurs remains (Maastrichtian), and a well diversified marine avifauna (Thanetian and Ypresian). A significant increase in the number of described taxa (52 versus 13) and an improvement of the quality of the specimens found (articulated skeletons versus isolated remains) is worthy of consideration. The Maastrichtian reptilian assemblages are dominated by mosasaurid squamates whereas those of the Palaeogene are by the mirroring crocodyliforms (dyrosaurids and eusuchians).

A New Mosasaurine from the Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) Phosphates of Morocco and Its Implications for Mosasaurine Systematics

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2012
J Vertebr Paleontol

A new mosasaur, Eremiasaurus heterodontus, gen. et sp. nov., from the Maastrichtian phosphates of Morocco is described based on the basis of two specimens: one consisting of a nearly complete skull, vertebral column, and isolated appendicular elements, and the other a nearly complete skull with associated vertebral column. This new mosasaur exhibits a high degree of heterodonty and a large number of pygal vertebrae, the latter feature expressed to a greater degree only in Plotosaurus from the Maastrichtian of California. Analysis of a data matrix of 135 characters and 32 terminal taxa resulted in three equally most parsimonious trees, and recovered E. heterodontus as the sister taxon to Plotosaurini. A second analysis incorporating five species of the globidensine mosasaur Prognathodon recovered 252 most parsimonious trees. This second analysis also recovered E. heterodontus as the closest relative to the Plotosaurini, a position supported by the presence of an internarial bar keel, exclusion of the prefrontals from the narial borders, narial embayments in the frontal, and the presence of a quadrate ala groove. A change in the positions of several key character-state changes in the second analysis not only supports the exclusion of E. heterodontus from the globidensine mosasaurs, but also calls into question the monophyly of the Globidensini and the suite of quadrate and dental characters used to diagnose this group.

Marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous Phosphates of Jordan: Palaeobiogeographical implications

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2002

Spain) Département Histoire de la Terre, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, 8 rue Buffon, F-75231 Paris cedex 05 (France) gpppesuf@lg.ehu.es Bardet N. & Pereda Suberbiola X. 2002. — Marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous Phosphates of Jordan: palaeobiogeographical implications. Geodiversitas 24 (4) : 831-839. ABSTRACT Marine reptiles, including mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles and crocodilians, from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Phosphates of Ruseifa, Jordan, are reviewed on the basis of both historical collections and new discoveries. Mosasaurids are represented by mosasaurines (Globidens sp.), plioplate-carpines (Platecarpus ptychodon Arambourg, 1952, Prognathodon giganteus Dollo, 1904) and the basal Halisaurus Marsh, 1869. Indeterminate remains of elasmosaurid plesiosaurs, chelonioid turtles and crocodyliformes also occur. The marine reptile faunas from Jordan are reminiscent of those from the Late Cretaceous Phosphates of the Middle-East and of the southern margin of the Mediterranean Tethys in general.

Appendix. A synopsis of the species of Class Reptilia

Article

J.E. Gray

Contributions à la stratigraphie et la paléontologie du Crétacé et du Nummulitique de la marge NW de la Péninsule Arabique. A: poissons et reptiles marins

Article

Jan 1959

J. Signeux

Nouveaux restes et révisions de faunes exceptionnelles du Crétacé supérieur audois: Les Belemnitellidae et Mosasauridae des Corbières

Article

Jan 1991

First report of the genus Hainosaurus (Squamata, Mosasauridae) in France

Article

Jan 1990

Nathalie Bardet

Two French mosasaur species previously described on cranial and vertebral material are reinterpreted. Mosasaurus gaudryi Thevenin 1896, from the Santonian of Eclusier-Vaux (Somme) is referred to Hainosaurus bernardi Dollo 1885; remains attributed to Platecarpus ictericus Cope 1875 from the Santonian and Campanian in the vicinity of Sougraigne (Aude) are referred to ?Hainosaurus sp. The genus Hainosaurus Dollo 1885 is thus mentioned in France for the first time. This extends its geographical range beyond Belgium and Canada. A Santonian-Maastrichtian stratigraphical distribution and an European origin are suggested. There is an abridged English version. -English summary

The upper Campanian-Lower Maastrichtian chalks of the Mons Basin, Belgium: a preliminary study of belemnites and foraminifera in the Harmignies and Ciply areas

Article

Jan 1989

The Upper Campanian-Lower Maastrichtian chalks of the Mons Basin in Belgium, in ascending order, Craie de Trivieres, Craie d'Obourg, Craie de Nouvelles, Craie de Spiennes, and Craie Phosphatee de Ciply, are tentatively placed in the international stratigraphic framework on the basis of preliminary studies of belemnites and foraminifera, as well some other macrofossils. The top of the Craie de Trivieres, the Craie d'Obourg, the Craie de Nouvelles are from the lower part of the Upper Campanian, and the basal 10-12 m of the Craie de Spiennes from the upper part of the Upper Campanian. The Craie Phosphatee is regarded to be from the upper part of the lower Lower Maastrichtian. -Authors

New Teleostei from the Lower Turonian locality of Goulmima (Morocco)

Article

Nov 1997

L. Cavin

The locality yielding fossiliferous nodules from the marine Lower Turonian in the vicinity of Goulmima, south of the Moroccan Atlas, provided three new species of Teleostei belonging to the ichthyodectids, araripichthyids and osmeroidids. The faunal assemblage shows a mixture of taxa known in other respects either in two South American localities from the Albian and Turonian or in different localities from the Albian to the Cenomanian of Europe and cosmopolitan taxa from the Upper Cretaceous.

Études sur la formation crétacée des versants sud-ouest, nord et nord-ouest du plateau central de la France

Article

J. d'Archiac

Synopsis of the extinct Batrachia of North America

Article

P ACAD NAT SCI PHILA

E.D. Cope

Osteology of Manemergus anguirostris n. gen. et sp., a new plesiosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Upper Cretaceous of Morocco

Article

May 2005
Palaeontograph Abteilung

A new polycotylid plesiosaur from the early Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) of the region of Goulmima, Morocco, is described. The holotype of Manemergus anguirostris n. gen. et sp. comprises the subcomplete axial skeleton and partial appendicular skeleton of an articulated juvenile individual. Owing to the young age of the specimen, the nature of anatomical variation during ontogeny in plesiosaurs is discussed. The new taxon is characterised by its skull architecture combining a narrow, relatively short rostrum and a box-like post-orbital segment, and slender, smooth teeth. The state of preservation of the specimen hints at a relative in vivo stiffness of the neck due to strong ligamentous intervertebral connections.

Mosasauridae. Introduction

Article

Jan 1997

G.L. Bell Jr

Tableau des fossiles de la craie de Meudon, et description de quelques espèces nouvelles

Article

E. Hébert

The occurrence of mosasaurs in Egypt and in Africa in general

Article

O. Zdansky

A reappraisal of Arambourgiania (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea): One of the world's largest flying animals

Article

Dec 1996
Neues Jahrbuch Geol Palaontol Abhand

Arambourgiania Philadelphias (ARAMBOURG 1959) from the Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) of Ruseifa, Jordan, is one of the largest pterosaurs known and was an animal comparable in size to the North American pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus northropi. A recent visit to Jordan failed to locate the holotype of A. philadelphiae (ARAMBOURG), although new, but fragmentary remains from the type locality were discovered. The new remains may be referable to Arambourgiania and are clearly distinct from Quetzalcoatlus. Calculations suggest that the wing span of Arambourgiania may have reached 12 meters.

Histoire géologique du domaine de l'Anti-Atlas

Article

Jan 1952

G. Choubert

Note sur l'ostéologie des Mosasauridae

Article

L. Dollo

Notice stratigraphique sur l'étage Sénonien aux environs de Sens

Article

J. Lambert

Deuxième note sur les fossiles de la craie phosphatée de la Picardie

Article

M. Leriche

Première note sur les mosasauriens de Mesvin

Article

L. Dollo

Sur la présence de Mosasauriens dans le Turonien de France

Article

A. Thevenin

Sur le grand animal fossile des carrières de Maestricht

Article

G. Cuvier

On the reptilian orders Pythonomorpha and Streptosauria

Article

Jan 1869

E.D. Cope

Evolution du domaine atlasique marocain depuis les temps paléozoïques

Article

Jan 1962

The tylosaurine mosasaurs (Reptilia, Mosasauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Europe and Africa

Article

Jan 1992

Theagarten Lingham-Soliar

Der Schâdelbau des Mosasaurus durch Beschreibung einer neuen Art dieser Gattung erlâutert

Article

A. Goldfuss

Tethyan Phosphates and Bioproductites

Article

Jan 1995

Among the periods known to have been more especially phosphogenic, the Late Cretaceous—Paleocene is one of the best known, because of the number and size of mined deposits such as those of Morocco and the Middle East. All deposits of that period are linked to Tethys and the bordering platforms, the evolution of which was responsible for the paleogeographical conditions needed to interrupt the biological cycle of phosphorus by mineralization of this element. Also needed is the occurrence of locations suitable for its preservation and concentration.

Mosasaurus hoffmanni, the 'Grand Animal fossile des Carrieres de Maestricht': two centuries of history [Mosasaurus hoffmanni, le 'Grand Animal fossile des Carrieres de Maestricht': deux siecles d'histoire]

Article

Jan 1996

For the bicentenary of its arrival at the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle of Paris, the 'Grand Animal fossile des Carrieres de Maestricht' is reviewed from a historical point of view. The analysis of a matrix sample associated to the fossil has permitted to determine its exact stratigraphical occurrence within the Maastricht Formation: it comes from the Kanne Horizon, located in the upper third of the Nekum Chalk, Late Maastrichtian in age. A. Camper revealed its real nature, namely a gigantic marine varanoid lizard and Cuvier confirmed this hypothesis, using comparative anatomy. The Maastricht mosasaur has received several scientific names but Mosasaurus hoffmanni Mantell, 1859 should be applied.

A new look at Faujas de Saint-Fond's fantastic story on the provenance and acquisition of the type specimen of Mosasaurus hoffmanni MANTELL, 1829

Article

Mar 2012

Mosasaurs from the Upper Cretaceous of Niger

Article

Jan 1991
Palaeontology

Theagarten Lingham-Soliar

Fragmentary remains from the Dukamaje Formation ("Mosasaurus Shales'), Upper Maastrichtian, SW Niger, reveal a diverse mosasaur fauna of at least six genera - Goronyosaurus, Igdamanosaurus nov. gen., Angolasaurus, Halisaurus, Plioplatecarpus, Mosasaurus, and possibly Platecarpus. This represents an astonishingly high number of mosasaur genera from a single horizon. Plioplatecarpus represents the first documentation in Africa of this genus. -from Author

Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea

Book

Jan 2005

Michael J. Everhart

Revised, updated, and expanded with the latest interpretations and fossil discoveries, the second edition of Oceans of Kansas adds new twists to the fascinating story of the vast inland sea that engulfed central North America during the Age of Dinosaurs. Giant sharks, marine reptiles called mosasaurs, pteranodons, and birds with teeth all flourished in and around these shallow waters. Their abundant and well-preserved remains were sources of great excitement in the scientific community when first discovered in the 1860s and continue to yield exciting discoveries 150 years later. Michael J. Everhart vividly captures the history of these startling finds over the decades and re-creates in unforgettable detail these animals from our distant past and the world in which they lived-above, within, and on the shores of America's ancient inland sea.

The mosasaurid (Squamata) Prognathodon in the Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) of the Cotentin Peninsula (Normandy, northwestern France)

Article

Apr 2012

Although the presence of mosasaurids in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Baculites limestone of the Cotentin peninsula, in the western part of Normandy (France), was reported as early as 1873 by Henri-Emile Sauvage, this occurrence has largely been overlooked by subsequent authors. In this paper we review Sauvage’s original material (an isolated tooth – the type of Mosasaurus platyodon) and describe an additional, hitherto unpublished, tooth crown also from the Baculites Limestone of the Cotentin and refer both to the globidensine mosasaur Prognathodon. Mosasaurus platyodon Sauvage, 1873 is considered a nomen dubium.

Palaeoenvironmental evolution of the fish assemblages from the Late Cretaceous of the Tafilalt basin and surrounding areas, southeastern Morocco: Palaeogeographical implications

Article

Nov 2001

A critical revision of published data along with new field data allow to draw up the succession of the fish faunas from the Lower Cenomanian to the Lower Turonian in the Tafilalt basin and surrounding areas (southeast Morocco). The analysis of these faunas shows changes from freshwater to marine palaeoenvironments. The palaeogeographic distribution of some taxa is discussed. It shows that the crossing of strictly freshwater organisms between Africa and South America was likely impossible at the time of the formation of the deposits resting around the Tafilalt basin and named 'Kem Kem beds'. The Cenomano-Turonian transgression reached the Erfoud-Errachidia carbonate platform from the Central Tethys, and then connected the central Atlantic.

The first record of Hainosaurus (Reptilia: Mosasauridae) from Sweden

Article

Nov 2005

Johan Lindgren

Isolated marginal tooth crowns of the early Campanian mosasaur Hainosaurus Dollo, 1885, from the Kristianstad Basin and the Vomb Trough, southern Sweden, are described and illustrated. The teeth have been collected from a narrow stratigraphic interval corresponding to the highest belemnite zone in the lower part of the European two-fold division of the Campanian stage. A reexamination of dental and skeletal characters in two alleged species of Hainosaurus, ‘H.’ pembinensis Nicholls, 1988 and ‘H.’ gaudryi (Thévenin, 1896), and detailed comparisons with the corresponding elements in H. bernardi Dollo, 1885 and Tylosaurus proriger (Cope, 1869a), strongly indicate that ‘H.’ pembinensis and ‘H.’ gaudryi are both Tylosaurus Marsh, 1872. Diagnostic features of Hainosaurus include a very small infrastapedial process on the quadrate (conspicuous protuberance in Tylosaurus), flattened, symmetrically bicarinate marginal teeth (asymmetric and conical in Tylosaurus), short and wide pygal centra, and anteriorly situated intermediate caudal vertebral centra with dorsoventrally thin transverse processes (markedly triangular centra and thick processes in Tylosaurus).

X.--A Tabular Arrangement of the Organic Remains of the County of Sussex

Article

Jan 1829

G.A. Mantell

A new mosasauroid (Squamata) from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian) of Morocco

Article

Dec 2003

Tethysaurus nopcsai gen. et sp. nov. is described on the basis of both cranial and postcranial material from the Late Cretaceous (Early Turonian) of the Goulmima region, southern Morocco. This new mosasauroid is mainly characterized by a parietal table ending posteriorly in two pointed pegs; jugal with a large ascending ramus; splenial with a large and notched dorsomedial process; surangular exposed medially ventral to the coronoid; large paracotylar and parazygosphenal foramina on vertebrae. A phylogenetic analysis shows that Tethysaurus is the sister-group of Mosasauridae. It fills the gap between the aigialosaurids (mainly Cenomanian) and the mosasaurids (known from the Middle-Late Turonian to the Latest Maastrichtian). To cite this article: N. Bardet et al., C. R. Palevol 2 (2003).

Nouveaux Teleostei du gisement Turonien inférieur de Goulmima (Maroc)

Article

Nov 1997

Lionel Cavin

La localité à nodules fossilifères du Turonien inférieur marin des environs de la ville de Goulmima (versant sud de l'Atlas marocain) fournit une riche faune d'Actinoptérygiens. Trois nouvelles espèces de téléostéens appartenant aux familles des Ichthyodectidae, des Araripichtbyidae et des Osmeroididae sont signalées. L'ichthyofaune de Goulmima présente un mélange de formes connues par ailleurs, soit en Amérique du Sud dans deux gisements d'âge Albien et Turonien, soit dans des gisements européens répartis entre l'Albien et le Campanien et de formes cosmopolites au Crétacé supérieur.

III.—Note on Tooth of an Extinct Alligator ( Bottosaurus Belgicus, sp. nov.) from the Lower Danian of Ciply, Belgium

Article

Jan 1891

A. Smith Woodward

Among the vertebrate remains discovered by M. Houzeau de Lehaie in the “Craie brune phosphatée” of Ciply, is the crown of a large tritoral tooth, of unusual form and somewhat difficult of determination. A study of the reptilian teeth from the New Jersey Greensand in the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences has, however, suggested to the writer a plausible explanation of the specimen; and a brief notice of its characters may perhaps lead to the discovery of more satisfactory evidence of the animal to which it pertains.

Mosasaurus beaugei Arambourg, 1952 (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from the Late Cretaceous Phosphates of Morocco

Article

May 2004
Geobios

Mosasaurus beaugei Arambourg, 1952 was based on isolated teeth from the Maastrichtian phosphatic deposits of Morocco. The recent discovery of new material, including skull and mandibular remains, improves our knowledge of this species. M. beaugei shares the following synapomorphies with the genus Mosasaurus: large teeth bearing two prominent carinae and with asymmetrical labial and lingual surfaces, the labial one being flattened and strongly facetted and the lingual one being convex; premaxillae with a small pointed rostrum and dentary without rostrum; palatal elements closely united; coronoid with very large ventromedial process overlying the prearticular. M. beaugei is characterised by the following autapomorphies: 12-13 maxillary teeth; marginal teeth bearing 3-5 prisms on the labial surface and 8-9 on the lingual one; palatine with posterior border concave and perpendicular to the long axis of the skull; splenial visible laterally on half of the dentary ventral surface; coronoid with anterior wing well developed and bearing two notches. M. beaugei is only known to date in the Maastrichtian phosphates of Morocco.

Tylosaurus ivoensis: A giant mosasaur from the early Campanian of Sweden

Article

Mar 2002
EARTH ENV SCI T R SO

The nominal species Mosasaurus ivoensis from the latest early Campanian of the Kristianstad Basin in southern Sweden, is redescribed and assigned to the tylosaurine genus Tylosaurus on the basis of its dental and vertebral morphology. A partial skeleton (KUVP 1024) from the late Coniacian to earliest Campanian Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation in western Kansas, USA, was previously referred to “ M ”. ivoensis . Nevertheless, its marginal teeth are markedly different, both in size and morphology, from those of topotypic T. ivoensis . Examination of type specimens and topotypic material of the nominal tylosaurines Hainosaurus pembinensis from the late early Campanian of Manitoba, Canada, H. gaudryi from the late Santonian or early Campanian of northwestern France, and H. lonzeensis from the Coniacian or Santonian of Belgium, indicates that all three may be Tylosaurus . The utility of isolated tooth-crowns in mosasaur taxonomy has been hampered by the often poor quality of the published illustrations of these fossils in combination with poor stratigraphic control. All Swedish remains of T. ivoensis , including 172 marginal teeth, 6 pterygoid teeth, several jawbone fragments and 12 vertebrae, were collected from a narrow stratigraphic interval corresponding to the highest biozone in the German eight-fold division of the early Campanian, providing the first good insight into the intraspecific dental variation in a tylosaurine mosasaur.

A new species of Halisaurus from the Late Cretaceous phosphates of Morocco, and the phylogenetical relationships of the Halisaurinae (Squamata: Mosasauridae)

Article

Mar 2005
ZOOL J LINN SOC-LOND

A new species of the basal mosasaurid Halisaurus from the Late Cretaceous (Late Maastrichtian) of the Oulad Abdoun Phosphate Basin of Morocco is described on the basis of both cranial and postcranial remains. H. arambourgi sp. nov. is characterized by unique features of the nares, frontal, parietal, girdle and limb bones. A phylogenetical analysis supports the monophyletic status of Halisaurus; H. platyspondylus (Maastrichtian, New Jersey), H. ortliebi (Maastrichtian, Belgium) and H. arambourgi form an unresolved polytomy. This study does not support the attribution of ‘Halisaurus’sternbergii (Santonian, Kansas) to Halisaurus nor to any known genus. A new genus, Eonatator, is proposed for the reception of this species, Eonatator sternbergii comb. nov. The new taxon Halisaurinae (Halisaurus + Eonatator) is the sister-group of more advanced mosasaurids (Natantia). Halisaurines are defined by the shape of the lateral premaxilla–maxilla suture; an oblique contact plane between the parietal and the supratemporal; a preaxial ridge present on the distal two-thirds of the radius length; and tibia and fibula long and slender with slightly expanded extremities. © 2005 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2005, 143, 447–472.

The Mosasaur collections of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris

Abstract

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