The marine vertebrate faunas from the Late Cretaceous phosphates of Syria

Abstract

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.

Soft tissue preservation in a fossil marine lizard with a bilobed tail fin

“…The strata comprise mainly chalk and locally bituminous chalky marl with abundant limestone and chert concretions, and have been interpreted as a deep-water pelagic deposit 26 . The MCMF is part of a larger Upper Cretaceous-Eocene carbonate and phosphate sequence that extends across northern Africa and into the Middle East 27 . Phosphatic deposits formed in areas of high primary productivity are known to preserve abundant vertebrate fossils, including remains of, for example, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, sharks, bony fish, turtles and marine crocodylians 27,28 .…”

A late Maastrichtian selachian assemblage from the Peedee Formation of North Carolina, USA.

“…The medially positioned cusplets are large and well-developed, whereas the laterally positioned pair are incipient. The Remarks: This cosmopolitan species has been reported from northern and western Africa (e.g., Arambourg 1935Arambourg , 1952Dartevelle and Casier 1959;Antunes 1964;Cappetta et al 2014), Madagascar (Gottfried et al 2001) and the Middle East (Bardet et al 2000). In North America, C. maroccana was reported from late Maastrichtian of Texas (Welton and Farish 1993: p.112, fig.…”

Geological setting and paleoecology of the Upper Cretaceous Bench 19 Marine Vertebrate Bonebed at Bentiaba, Angola

“…Isolated teeth of mosasaurs and plesiosaurs collected from the Bench 19 Fauna were identified by comparison with specimens at the Shuler Museum of Paleontology at SMU and published literature (Bardet & Pereda Superbiola, 2002;Schulp et al, 2006Schulp et al, , 2008Polcyn et al, 2010;Araújo et al, submitted A;submitted B). Tooth specimens were soaked in 10% acetic acid for at least 72 hours to remove diagenetic carbonate encrustation and rinsed with deionised water.…”