Jamaican Tertiary marine Vertebrata

Abstract

The record of Tertiary marine vertebrates from Jamaica is fragmentary in the extreme, but nonetheless includes some significant specimens. The Eocene section has produced the type specimens of a crocodile and of the most primitive known sea cow, together with unidentifiable fragments of a turtle, whereas the Pliocene has yielded a needlefish. It is likely that a much richer fauna remains to be discovered, once exposures of the appropriate facies are located and collected. SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY CLASS OSTEICHTHYES SUBCLASS ACTINOPTERYGH DIVISION TELEOSTEI ORDER ATHERINIFORMESFamily Belonidae cf. Platybelone argalus (LeSueur, 1821)The only fossil fish specimen reported from the Tertiary of Jamaica comprises two associated fragments of a mandible of a needlefish (Family Belonidae). The specimen was collected from the Bowden Formation near Bowden in St. Thomas Parish (Caldwell, 1965), and was deposited in the Bowden collection at the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston. The Bowden Formation has a rich fauna of marine invertebrates, but this specimen is the only fossil vertebrate known from it. The age of the Bowden Formation was said by Caldwell to be Miocene, but it is now considered Pliocene (see Berggren, this volume; Aubry, this volume). Caldwell noted that the dentition of the specimen is very similar to that of Platybelone argalus (the keeltail needlefish) and differs from that of the other five extant belonid species known to occur near Jamaica. He therefore identified the specimen as "Platybelone cf. argalus." As he noted, however, this genus is monotypic (Collette and Berry, 1965), and this identification is more correctly expressed as cf. Platybelone argalus. This species is commonly found today in nearshore environments of Jamaica. CLASSREPTILIA ORDER CROCODYLIA SUBORDER EUSUCfflA Family Thoracosauridae ^Charactosuchus kugleri Berg, 1969 The Tertiary Crocodylia of Jamaica are known from a mandibular symphysis and isolated bones and teeth found near the village of Dump, Abbreviations: BMNH, British Museum (Natural History), London; USNM, U.S. National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

Systematics and Taxonomy of Eocene Tomistomine Crocodylians From Britain and Northern Europe

“…obs. ), which is consistent with the suggestion made by Domning and Clark (1993) that C. kugleri might instead be referable to Dollosuchus .…”

Evolution of the Side-Necked Turtles: The Families Bothremydidae, Euraxemydidae, and Araripemydidae

“…Bairdemys occurs in the Miocene of Venezuela and Puerto Rico. However, the group that it belongs to within the Podocnemididae, the Shweboemys Group, is known throughout the Caribbean (Domning and Clark, 1993 [this record contains the posterior end of a lower jaw that is a podocnemidid]; Domning et al, 1997;Sá nchez-Villagra et al, 2000;Gaffney and Wood, 2002). Furthermore, an undescribed lower jaw in the South Carolina State Museum (SCSM SC90.…”