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[dinosaur] Small ornithopod from Qingdao area of Shandong + marine reptiles from Opole, Poland + tracks from Triassic lake margin.





Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.comÂ


Some recent papers and publications:



REN Tianlong, WANG Jinguang, NING Zhenguo, SHEN Caizhi, ZHANG Fuzhong, HUANG Yongbo, ZHANG Chengjun & LÃ Junchang (2017)
First discovery of dinosaur in Qingdao area of Shandong Province.
Geological Bulletin of China 36(11): 254-260
http://dzhtb.cgs.cn/ch/reader/view_abstract.aspx?file_no=20171115&flag=1

Free pdf:
http://dzhtb.cgs.cn/ch/reader/create_pdf.aspx?file_no=20171115&flag=1&journal_id=gbc&year_id=2017


An ornithopod dinosaur was discovered for the first time in Qingdao area, Shandong Province. Based on the morphological characteristics of caudal vertebrae, humerus, ilium and femur, it is assigned to a small ornithopod dinosaur. It is difficult to determine the exact genus and species, because of the lack of specimens. This discovery plays an important role in the study of distribution and evolution of ornithopod dinosaurs and stratigraphic correlation. The discovery will provide the clue and evidence for finding more dinosaur skeletons in this area in the future.

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Sven Sachs, John W.M. Jagt, Robert NiedÅwiedzki, Mariusz KÄdzierski, Elena A. Jagt-Yazykova & Benjamin P. Kear (2017)
Turonian marine amniotes from the Opole area in southwest Poland.
Cretaceous Research (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2017.12.002
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667117302951



A few isolated plesiosaurian and mosasauroid squamate teeth were collected from the Opole area in southwest Poland during the late nineteenth century. Calcareous nannofossil analysis of their associated rock matrix indicates an early Turonian age (nannofossil zone UC7; Mytiloides ex gr. labiatus and Inoceramus apicalis inoceramid zones), which is significant because this constitutes a globally enigmatic interval of marine amniote evolution. The Opole plesiosaurian teeth are attributable to polycotylids, but an indeterminate mesopodial was also recovered. They are similar to specimens from the CenomanianâTuronian in the Saxonian Cretaceous Basin of Germany and the Chalk succession of England, but differ from polycotylid remains found in the coeval Bohemian Cretaceous Basin of the Czech Republic, which are far more robust. The mosasaurid tooth crown from Opole compares favourably with dentary and maxillary teeth of a number of Turonian yaguarasaurines and basal russellosaurines, but in having well-developed carinae and a smooth labial and strongly folded/markedly striated lingual tooth surfaces it can be differentiated from taxa such as Yaguarasaurus columbianus (Colombia), Romeosaurus fumanensis and R. sorbinii (both Italy) and âMosasaurusâ gracilis (England). However, a single record from the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin may refer to a conspecific form. All this suggests a potential for slight compositional differences between CenomanianâTuronian marine amniote assemblages across central and northern Europe, although otherwise these regions probably constituted a common faunal belt bordering the Tethys Ocean.


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D.L. Fillmore, M.J. Szajna, S.G. Lucas, B.W. Hartline and E.L. Simpson (2017)
Ichnology of a Late Triassic lake margin: the Lockatong Formation, Newark Basin, Pennsylvania.
New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science Bulletin 76: 1-107Â
https://albertiana-sts.org/2017/12/05/publication-announcement-ichnology-of-a-late-triassic-lake-margin-the-lockatong-formation-newark-basin-pennsylvania/#more-223



The Late Triassic Lockatong Formation exposed in the Newark Basin of eastern Pennsylyania yielded a spectacularly diverse and abundant nonmarine ichnofossil assemblage, formed in a lacustrine-margin setting. The specimens described in this report, numbering more than 200, now conserved by the State Museum of Pennsylvania Invertebrate and Vertebrate Paleontology Collections, were recovered from a single construction site located approximately 8 km northeast of Souderton, Pennsylvania, referred to herein as the Silverdale Development Discovery Site (SDDS). The ichnofossils are from the Tumble Falls Member near the top of the Lockatong Formation. Eighteen invertebrate ichnogenera are described and illustrated together with three vertebrate footprint ichnotaxa (the vertebrate ichnofossils are described more fully in separate reports), and five Undichna ichnospecies. The invertebrate trace fossils are dominated by arthropod trackways that include Acanthichnus, Bifurculpes, Cruziana, Diplichnites, Diplopodichnus, Kouphichnium, and Lithographus; arthropod resting traces, Rusophycus; invertebrate feeding traces, Selenichnites and Treptichnus; grazing trails, Cochlichnus; relatively larger burrows, Scoyenia; as well as six somewhat similar burrows-trails, Gordia, Haplotichnus, Helminthoidichnites, Helminthopsis, Planolites, and Sphaerapus. The vertebrate trace fossils described are assigned to Atreipus, Gwyneddichnium, Rhynchosauroides, and five Ichnospecies of Undichna. Additionally, a new ichnospecies, Diplichnites metzi, is identified and described. Enigmatic sedimentary structures, including unique sandy spheres of algal origin, and round, stellate-shaped structures, are present. Invertebrate trace fossils of this collection best fit the Mermia Ichnofacies, and, to a lesser degree, the Scoyenia ichnofacies. Vertebrate trackways of this collection fall Into the Grallator Ichnofacies. The large collection of well-preserved Invertebrate and vertebrate specimens, with a few sedimentary features, all Illustrate the Incredible biological diversity present along the Newark Basin lake shorelines of the Late Triassic.

[This 107-page volume presents complete documentation (including numerous photographs) of one of the most extensive inverterbrate ichnoassemblages known from the Newark Supergroup. If you are interested in ordering Bulletin 76, it costs $20 and you can contact Holly Lowe, Store Manager for the NMMNH&S, at hlowe@naturalhistoryfoundation.org to place orders.]

Note that New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science Bulletins go into open access after a period of years.


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