AN ANALYSIS OF FRESHWATER AND BRACKISH NEOSELACHIANS FROM THE LATE CRETACEOUS OF SOUTHERN ALBERTA, CANADA
Open Access
Author:
Mccrea, Robert John
Area of Honors:
Biology (Behrend)
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Todd D. Cook, Thesis Supervisor Michael A Campbell, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Maastrichtian Campanian Western Interior Seaway Selachians
Abstract:
The Western Interior Seaway was a large intercontinental sea that divided North America into two land-masses during the Late Cretaceous (100 Ma – 65 Ma). Very little is known about the freshwater and brackish vertebrate faunas that inhabited the river systems draining into the seaway during the middle Campanian and early Maastrichtian. Numerous shark and ray dentitions were recovered from fluvial and freshwater deposits of the Oldman Formation and the St. Mary River Formation of southern Alberta, Canada. The Oldman Formation site appears to have been dominated by hybodont sharks and Myledaphus rays, whereas the St. Mary River Formation has produced an orectolobid species. The presence of these species assists in the paleoreconstruction of this non-marine community and provide important insights into the paleodistribution of these long extinct fishes.
