Shark-bitten dinosaur (Hadrosauridae) caudal vertebrae from the Niobrara Chalk (Upper Coniacian) of western Kansas

Everhart, Michael J.; Ewell, Keith

doi:10.1660/0022-8443(2006)109[27:sdhcvf]2.0.co;2

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…29L); these enlarged pores are approximately 0.1–0.5 mm in diameter. This pattern of surface pitting has previously been documented in shark-bitten dinosaur and plesiosaur bones [126], [127], plesiosaur remains preserved as gut contents within a mosasaur [128] and dinosaur bones identified as gut contents of a tyrannosaurid [129]. This surface pitting is indistinguishable from that identified by Varricchio [129] and interpreted as partial acid digestion of bones.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Comparative Taphonomy, Taphofacies, and Bonebeds of the Mio-Pliocene Purisima Formation, Central California: Strong Physical Control on Marine Vertebrate Preservation in Shallow Marine Settings

Boessenecker

Perry²,

Schmitt

2014

PLoS ONE

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BackgroundTaphonomic study of marine vertebrate remains has traditionally focused on single skeletons, lagerstätten, or bonebed genesis with few attempts to document environmental gradients in preservation. As such, establishment of a concrete taphonomic model for shallow marine vertebrate assemblages is lacking. The Neogene Purisima Formation of Northern California, a richly fossiliferous unit recording nearshore to offshore depositional settings, offers a unique opportunity to examine preservational trends across these settings.Methodology/Principal FindingsLithofacies analysis was conducted to place vertebrate fossils within a hydrodynamic and depositional environmental context. Taphonomic data including abrasion, fragmentation, phosphatization, articulation, polish, and biogenic bone modification were recorded for over 1000 vertebrate fossils of sharks, bony fish, birds, pinnipeds, odontocetes, mysticetes, sirenians, and land mammals. These data were used to compare both preservation of multiple taxa within a single lithofacies and preservation of individual taxa across lithofacies to document environmental gradients in preservation. Differential preservation between taxa indicates strong preservational bias within the Purisima Formation. Varying levels of abrasion, fragmentation, phosphatization, and articulation are strongly correlative with physical processes of sediment transport and sedimentation rate. Preservational characteristics were used to delineate four taphofacies corresponding to inner, middle, and outer shelf settings, and bonebeds. Application of sequence stratigraphic methods shows that bonebeds mark major stratigraphic discontinuities, while packages of rock between discontinuities consistently exhibit onshore-offshore changes in taphofacies.Conclusions/SignificanceChanges in vertebrate preservation and bonebed character between lithofacies closely correspond to onshore-offshore changes in depositional setting, indicating that the dominant control of preservation is exerted by physical processes. The strong physical control on marine vertebrate preservation and preservational bias within the Purisima Formation has implications for paleoecologic and paleobiologic studies of marine vertebrates. Evidence of preservational bias among marine vertebrates suggests that careful consideration of taphonomic overprint must be undertaken before meaningful paleoecologic interpretations of shallow marine vertebrates is attempted.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Comparative Taphonomy, Taphofacies, and Bonebeds of the Mio-Pliocene Purisima Formation, Central California: Strong Physical Control on Marine Vertebrate Preservation in Shallow Marine Settings

Boessenecker

Perry²,

Schmitt

2014

PLoS ONE

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“…Indeterminate nodosaurid and hadrosauroid specimens have also been recovered (Carpenter et al, 1995;Everhart, 2005;Everhart and Hamm, 2005;Everhart and Ewell, 2006;Everhart, 2014). One set of hadrosaurid caudal vertebrae from an animal somewhat larger than the holotype of Claosaurus agilis has been recovered with evidence of consumption by a large shark (Everhart and Ewell, 2006).…”

Section: Coniacian and Santonianmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One set of hadrosaurid caudal vertebrae from an animal somewhat larger than the holotype of Claosaurus agilis has been recovered with evidence of consumption by a large shark (Everhart and Ewell, 2006). The preservation of partial specimens in the marine Smoky Hill Chalk is typical of the bloat-andfloat model of preservation, which often characterizes Appalachian dinosaur specimens (Schwimmer, 1997).…”

Section: Coniacian and Santonianmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coniacian/Santonian Dinosaur Faunas. The Niobrara Chalk is late Coniacian to Santonian in age in the general area surrounding Hackleberry Creek (where Niobrarasaurus, "Heirosaurus", indeterminate nodosaurids, and the caudal vertebrae of an indeterminate hadrosaurid have been found) and late Santonian in Logan County (where the holotype of Claosaurus was uncovered) (e.g., Carpenter et al, 1995;Weishampel et al, 2004;Everhart and Ewell, 2006;Prieto-Márquez et al, 2016a;Prieto-Márquez et al, 2016b). Thus, the Niobrara Formation is comparable in age to the Eutaw Formation, which has been dated to the Santonian (87-83 Ma) (e.g., Weishampel et al, 2004;Ebersole and King, 2011;Prieto-Márquez et al, 2016a;Prieto-Márquez et al, 2016b).…”

Section: Aptian Dinosaur Faunas Because the Arundelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The biogeography and ecology of the Cretaceous non-avian dinosaurs of Appalachia

Brownstein¹

2018

Palaeontol Electron

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The Cenomanian to Maastrichtian of the Late Cretaceous saw the flooding of the interior of North America by the Western Interior Seaway, which created the eastern landmass of Appalachia and the western landmass of Laramidia. Though Appalachian dinosaur faunas are poorly known, they are nevertheless important for understanding Cretaceous dinosaur paleobiogeography and ecology. In order to better track the vicariance of eastern and western North American dinosaur faunas over the duration of the Cretaceous, the former were compared with the latter from the Aptian to Maastrichtian Stages of the Late Cretaceous using several similarity indices. The data gathered from biogeographic similarity indices suggest that an almost completely homogenous North American dinosaur fauna found in the Early Cretaceous experienced significant vicariance, splitting into a Laramidian fauna differentiated by the presence of ceratopsids, pachycephalosaurids, saurolophids, lambeosaurines, ankylosaurids, therizinosaurids, and troodontids and an Appalachian fauna characterized by the lack of the aforementioned groups and the presence of non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids, massive hadrosauroids, basal hadrosaurids, leptoceratopsians, "intermediate"-grade tyrannosauroids, and nodosaurids between the Cenomanian and Campanian, with these two faunas later experiencing limited dispersal after the disappearance of the Western Interior Seaway from the American Interior during the Maastrichtian. Dinosaur provincialism and ecology on Appalachia are also investigated and discussed.

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“…Unlike crocodyliform bite marks, traces on dinosaur bones from sharks have been recovered from the Campanian and Maastrichtian of eastern North America. Such finds include the heavily shark-bitten partial femur of a diminutive adult hadrosaurid from the Hornerstown Formation (Schein and Poole, 2014) and other remains of hadrosaurids, nodosaurids, and tyrannosauroids (e.g., Carpenter et al, 1995;Schwimmer, 1997;Schwimmer, Stewart & Williams, 1997;Everhart & Ewell, 2006;Brownstein, 2017). Some of these occurrences of shark feeding traces on dinosaur bones may been caused by individuals of the medium-sized species…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Theropod hindlimbs with feeding and other traces reveal ecosystem dynamics in the Maastrichtian of eastern North America

Brownstein

2018

Preprint

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Shark-bitten dinosaur (Hadrosauridae) caudal vertebrae from the Niobrara Chalk (Upper Coniacian) of western Kansas

Cited by 18 publications

References 15 publications

Comparative Taphonomy, Taphofacies, and Bonebeds of the Mio-Pliocene Purisima Formation, Central California: Strong Physical Control on Marine Vertebrate Preservation in Shallow Marine Settings

Comparative Taphonomy, Taphofacies, and Bonebeds of the Mio-Pliocene Purisima Formation, Central California: Strong Physical Control on Marine Vertebrate Preservation in Shallow Marine Settings

The biogeography and ecology of the Cretaceous non-avian dinosaurs of Appalachia

Theropod hindlimbs with feeding and other traces reveal ecosystem dynamics in the Maastrichtian of eastern North America

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