Eocene lower vertebrates from Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Estes, Richard; Hutchison, J. Howard

doi:10.1016/0031-0182(80)90064-4

Cited by 168 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Previous work from the Eocene Canadian Arctic, summarized in Eberle and Greenwood [8] and Estes and Hutchison [3], identified gars (cf. Lepisosteus sp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Discovery of Eocene vertebrates, including alligators, turtles, fishes, and mammals, on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands in Canada's eastern High Arctic [1], [2], [3] (Figure 1) was a critical paleontological contribution of the last century, as it indicated that this region of the Arctic had been mild, temperate, and ice-free during the early -middle Eocene (,53-50 Ma), despite its location at ,76-77uN. paleolatitude [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

First FossilAlligatorfrom the Late Eocene of Nebraska and the Late Paleogene Record of Alligators in the Great Plains

Whiting

Hastings

2015

Journal of Herpetology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Discovery of Eocene non-marine vertebrates, including crocodylians, turtles, bony fishes, and mammals in Canada's High Arctic was a critical paleontological contribution of the last century because it indicated that this region of the Arctic had been mild, temperate, and ice-free during the early -middle Eocene (,53-50 Ma), despite being well above the Arctic Circle. To date, these discoveries have been restricted to Canada's easternmost Arctic -Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands (Nunavut). Although temporally correlative strata crop out over 1,000 km west, on Canada's westernmost Arctic Island -Banks Island, Northwest Territories -they have been interpreted as predominantly marine. We document the first Eocene bony fish and crocodyliform fossils from Banks Island.

show abstract

“…Previous work from the Eocene Canadian Arctic, summarized in Eberle and Greenwood [8] and Estes and Hutchison [3], identified gars (cf. Lepisosteus sp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First FossilAlligatorfrom the Late Eocene of Nebraska and the Late Paleogene Record of Alligators in the Great Plains

Whiting

Hastings

2015

Journal of Herpetology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Fragmentary remains referable to Anosteira sp. have otherwise been reported from the Early Eocene (Bridgerian, Ypresian) of Ellesmere Island (Estes and Hutchison 1980), Saskatchewan (Hutchison and Storer 1998) and Wyoming , the Late Eocene (Duchesnian, Bartonian) of Utah ) and the Late Eocene (Chadronian, Priabonian) of South Dakota . Isolated carettochelyid fragments have also been reported from the Early Eocene (Uintan, Lutetian) of Texas, but in contrast to all other North American material, they were referred to cf.…”

Section: Paleobiogeographymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Fossil Record of Turtles of the CladePan-Carettochelys

Joyce

2014

Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Turtles of the total clade Pan-Carettochelys have a relatively poor fossil record that extends from the Early Cretaceous. The clade is only found in Asia during the Cretaceous, but spreads to Europe and North America during the Eocene. Neogene finds are restricted to Europe, Africa and Australia, whereas the only surviving species, Carettochelys insculpta, lives in New Guinea and the Northern Territories of Australia. The ecology of fossil pan-carettochelyids appears similar to that of the extant C. insculpta, although more primitive representatives were likely less adapted to brackish water. Current phylogenies only recognize three internested clades: Pan-Carettochelys, Carettochelyidae and Carettochelyinae. A taxonomic review of the group concludes that of 25 named taxa, 13 are nomina valida, 7 are nomina invalida, 3 are nomina dubia, and 2 are nomina nuda.

show abstract

“…They are essentially tropical to subtropical organisms (Alligator mississippiensis and Alligator sinensis being also known from warm-temperate zones) and their distribution in ancient environments is usually taken as an indication of tropical to subtropical temperatures [1][2][3] , a crucial adjunct to climate models for the Cretaceous and Cenozoic 4 . This assumption that crocodylomorphs are always indicators of tropical to subtropical conditions is based on their present distribution.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea surface temperature contributes to marine crocodylomorph evolution

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, four distinct crocodylomorph lineages colonized the marine environment. They were conspicuously absent from high latitudes, which in the Mesozoic were occupied by warm-blooded ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Despite a relatively well-constrained stratigraphic distribution, the varying diversities of marine crocodylomorphs are poorly understood, because their extinctions neither coincided with any major biological crises nor with the advent of potential competitors. Here we test the potential link between their evolutionary history in terms of taxic diversity and two abiotic factors, sea level variations and sea surface temperatures (SST). Excluding Metriorhynchoidea, which may have had a peculiar ecology, significant correlations obtained between generic diversity and estimated Tethyan SST suggest that water temperature was a driver of marine crocodylomorph diversity. Being most probably ectothermic reptiles, these lineages colonized the marine realm and diversified during warm periods, then declined or became extinct during cold intervals.

show abstract

Eocene lower vertebrates from Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Cited by 168 publications

References 8 publications

First FossilAlligatorfrom the Late Eocene of Nebraska and the Late Paleogene Record of Alligators in the Great Plains

First FossilAlligatorfrom the Late Eocene of Nebraska and the Late Paleogene Record of Alligators in the Great Plains

A Review of the Fossil Record of Turtles of the CladePan-Carettochelys

Sea surface temperature contributes to marine crocodylomorph evolution

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About