Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-rvbq7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T20:25:29.167Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Recent mosasaur discoveries from New Jersey and Delaware, USA: stratigraphy, taphonomy and implications for mosasaur extinction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2016

W.B. Gallagher
W.B. Gallagher*
Affiliation:
Bureau of Natural History, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ 08625-0530, USA. Email: william.gallagher@sos.state.nj.us Department of Geological Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08855, USA
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The Upper Cretaceous deposits of New Jersey and Delaware produced the first mosasaur specimens collected in North America. Recent recovery of mosasaur specimens from streambank exposures and new excavation sites has increased our knowledge of the stratigraphic distribution of these animals in the northern Atlantic coastal plain. Reassessment of the source and age of mosasaur specimens from the Big Brook site and other localities in Monmouth County (NJ) has greatly increased the number of known Campanian mosasaur specimens from this region. Two main taphonomic occurrence modes are noted: 1 - single, worn and broken bones and isolated teeth in mixed faunal deposits probably accumulated due to current action in nearshore environments; 2 - partial skeletons, skulls and single bones in deeper-water settings were the aftermath of biological modification of carcasses and deadfalls. The mosasaurs of the New Egypt Formation represent some of the last (i.e., stratigraphically highest) mosasaur fossils in North America. Mosasaur extinction was due to the collapse of the rich Late Cretaceous marine food web at the K/T boundary. Subsequently in the early Paleocene, with the disappearance of the mosasaurs, crocodilians became the apical predators of the marine environment in this area.

Keywords

MosasaursLate Cretaceoustaphonomyextinction
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 84 , Special Issue 3: Proceedings of the First Mosasaur Meeting , September 2005 , pp. 241 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2005

References

Bronn, H.G., 1838. Lethaea geognostica, oder Abbildungen und Beschreibung der für die Gebirgs-Formationen bezeichnendsten Versteinerungen, 2. E. Schweizerbart (Stuttgart): 545–1346.Google Scholar
Conybeare, W.D., 1822. In: Parkinson, J. (ed.). An Introduction to the study of fossil organic remains, vii + 344 pp., London.Google Scholar
Cope, E.D., 1869. On some Cretaceous Reptilia. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 20: 233–242.Google Scholar
DeKay, J.E., 1830. On the remains of extinct reptiles of the genera Mosasaurus and Geosaurus found in the Secondary formation of New Jersey: and on the occurrence of the substance named Coprolite by Dr Buckland, in the same locality. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York 3: 134–141.Google Scholar
Gallagher, W.B., 1993. The Cretaceous/Tertiary mass extinction event in the northern Atlantic Coastal Plain. The Mosasaur 5: 75–154.Google Scholar
Gallagher, W.B., 1997. New data on old discoveries: reinvestigating East Coast dinosaurs. In: Wolberg, D.L., Stump, E. & Rosenberg, G. (eds): Dinofest International Symposium Proceedings, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia: 199–201.Google Scholar
Gallagher, W.B., 2003. Oligotrophic oceans and minimalist organisms: collapse of the Maastrichtian marine ecosystem and Paleocene recovery in the Cretaceous - Tertiary sequence of New Jersey. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 82: 225–231.Google Scholar
Gallagher, W.B., Sugarman, P.J. & Feigenson, M.D., 1996. Strontium isotope age estimates for East Coast dinosaur sites. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16 (Suppl. to 3): 36A.Google Scholar
Gallagher, W.B., Parris, D.C., Grandstoff, B.S., Camburn, J. & Camburn, S., 2003. Comparative taphonomy of vertebrate fossil concentrations in the Late Cretaceous - Early Tertiary sequence of New Jersey. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23 (Suppl. to 3): 53A.Google Scholar
Gallagher, W.B., Jagt, J.W.M., Mulder, E.W.A. & Schulp, A.S., 2004. A new mosasaur specimen from Maastricht (the Netherlands), with a review of the Late Cretaceous-Early Paleogene marine faunas of New Jersey and Limburg. The Mosasaur 7: 47–57.Google Scholar
Gallagher, W.B., Camburn, J., Camburn, S., & Hanzcaryk, P.A. (In press). Taphonomy of a late Campanian fossil assemblage at Marlboro, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Northeastern Geology and Environmental Science.Google Scholar
Landman, N.H., Johnson, R.O., Cobban, W.A. & Edwards, L.E., 2004. Cephalopods from the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary interval on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, with a description of the highest ammonite zones in North America, Part 2. Northeastern Monmouth County, New Jersey. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 287: 1–107.Google Scholar
Lauginiger, E., 1988. Cretaceous fossils from the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal - a guide for students and collectors. Delaware Geological Survey, Special Publication 18: 57 pp.Google Scholar
Miller, K.G., Barrera, E., Olsson, R.K., Sugarman, P.S. & Savin, S.M., 1999. Does ice drive early Maastrichtian eustacy? Geology 27: 783–786.Google Scholar
Mitchill, S.L., 1818. Observations on the geology of North America. In: Cuvier, G.C.P., Essay on the Theory of the Earth (New York): 319–431.Google Scholar
Morton, S.G., 1830. Synopsis of the organic remains of the Ferruginous Sand formation of the United States: with geological remarks. American Journal of Science 17: 274–294; 18: 243–250.Google Scholar
Mulder, E.W.A., 1999. Transatlantic latest Cretaceous mosasaurs (Reptilia, Lacertilia) from the Maastrichtian type area and New Jersey. In: Jagt, J.W.M., Lambers, P.H., Mulder, E.W.A. & Schulp, A.S. (eds). Proceedings of the Third European Workshop on Vertebrate Paleontology, Maastricht, May 6–9, 1998. Geologie en Mijnbouw 78: 281–300.Google Scholar
Robb, A.J. III, 2004. Vertebrate fossils from the Upper Cretaceous (Merchantville Formation: Early Campanian) Graham Brick Yards locality of New Jersey. The Mosasaur 7: 75–88.Google Scholar
Russell, D.A., 1967. Systematics and morphology of American mosasaurs. Bulletin of the Peabody Musem of Natural History Bulletin, Yale University 23: 1–240.Google Scholar
Staron, R.M., Grandstoff, B.S., Gallagher, W.B. & Grandstoff, D.E., 2001. REE signatures in vertebrate fossils from Sewell, NJ: Implications for location of the K-T boundary. Palaios 16: 255–265.Google Scholar