Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T07:36:58.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Remains of Clidastes Cope, 1868, an unexpected mosasaur in the upper Campanian of NW Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2016

M.W. Caldwell  and
C.G. Diedrich
M.W. Caldwell*
Affiliation:
University of Alberta, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Department of Biological Sciences, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E9
C.G. Diedrich
Affiliation:
University of Alberta, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Department of Biological Sciences, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E9
*
* Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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 mosasaurine Clidastes sp. is recognised from cranial and post-cranial remains collected at four localities in NW Germany. Cranial material was found in pelagic turbiditic marls which crop out near the village of Beckum, while post-cranial skeletal elements were collected from sandy limestones exposed near the villages of Schöppingen, Coesfeld and Billerbeck. In stratigraphic order, the units producing these specimens of Clidastes are the Coesfeld, Baumberge and Beckum formations of late Campanian (Late Cretaceous) age. The cranial material comprises the anterior part of a skull and a single isolated tooth, while post-cranial bones comprise a few isolated vertebrae and a partial skeleton including forelimb bones and an articulated vertebral column. Clidastes is known to date from the western North Sea Basin (England), southern Sweden, as well as from North America (Western Interior Seaway and Gulf Coast).

Keywords

ClidastesmosasaursMünsterlandGermanyupper Campanianpalaeogeography
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 84 , Special Issue 3: Proceedings of the First Mosasaur Meeting , September 2005 , pp. 213 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2005

References

Arnold, H., 1964. Zur Lithologie und Zyklik des Beckumer Campans. Fortschritte in der Geologie von Rheinland und Westfalen 7: 679–690.Google Scholar
Bell, G.L. Jr., 1997. A phylogenetic revision of North American and Adriatic Mosasauroidea. In: Callaway, J.M. & Nicholls, E.L. (eds): Ancient marine reptiles. Academic Press (San Diego): 293–332.Google Scholar
Caldwell, M.W., 1996. Ontogeny and phylogeny of the mesopodial skeleton in mosasauroid reptiles. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 116: 407–436.Google Scholar
Cope, E.D., 1868. (Remarks on Clidastes iguanavus, Nectoportheus validus and Elasmosaurus). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia 20: 181.Google Scholar
Cope, E.D., 1869. (Remarks on Clidastes propython, Polycotytus latipinnus, Ornithotarsus immanis). Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 11: 117.Google Scholar
Darga, R., 1998. Südostbayerisches Naturkunde- und Mammut-Museum Siegsdorf. Weltkunst Verlag (München): 158 pp.Google Scholar
Diedrich, C. & Mulder, E.W.A., 2004. A new record of Clidastes sp. (Squamata, Mosasauridae) in the Upper Campanian from the Münster Cretaceous Basin (NW Germany). Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 83: 367–372.Google Scholar
Everhart, M.J., Everhart, P.A., & Bourdon, J., 1997. Earliest documented occurrence of the mosasaur, Clidastes liodontus in the Smoky Hill Chalk (Upper Cretaceous) of western Kansas. Kansas Academy of Science, Transactions 16: 14.Google Scholar
Geinitz, H.B., 1849. Das Quadersandsteingebirge oder Kreidegebirge in Deutschland. Craz und Gerlach Verlag (Freiberg): 290 pp.Google Scholar
Geinitz, H.B., 1872-75. Das Elbthalgebirge in Sachsen. Zweiter Theil. Der mittlere und obere Quader. Palaeontographica 20: vii + 1–245.Google Scholar
Giers, R., 1958. Die Mukronatenkreide im östlichen Münsterland. Beihefte zum Geologischen Jahrbuch 34: 1–148.Google Scholar
Häntzschel, W., 1964. Spurenfossilien und Problematica im Campan von Beckum/Westf. Fortschritte in der Geologie von Rheinland und Westfalen 7: 295–308.Google Scholar
Hiss, M., 1995. Kreide. In: GLA (ed.): Geologie im Münsterland. Geologische Landesamt (Krefeld): 41–66.Google Scholar
Kiernan, C.R., 1992. Clidastes Cope, 1868 (Reptilia, Sauria): proposed designation of Clidastes propython Cope, 1869 as the type species. Bulletin of zoological Nomenclature 49:37–139.Google Scholar
Lindgren, J., 1998. Early Campanian mosasaurs (Reptilia: Mosasauridae) from the Kristianstad Basin, southern Sweden. Examensarbete i geologi vid Lunds Universitet 20: 1–25.Google Scholar
Lindgren, J. & Siverson, M., 2004. The first record of the mosasaur Clidastes from Europe and its palaeogeographical implications. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49: 219–234.Google Scholar
Lingham-Soliar, T., 1995. Anatomy and functional morphology of the largest marine reptile known, Mosasaurus hoffmanni (Mosasauridae, Reptilia) from the Upper Cretaceous, Upper Maastrichtian of the Netherlands. Philosophical Transactions of the royal Society of London B347: 155–180.Google Scholar
Merriam, J.C., 1894. Uber die Pythonomorphen der Kansas Kreide. Palaeonto- graphica 41: 1–39.Google Scholar
Milner, A.C., 1987. Reptiles. In: Owen, E. & Smith, A.B. (eds): Fossils of the Chalk. Palaeontological Association London, Field Guides to Fossils 2: 266–280.Google Scholar
Nicholls, E.L. & Meckert, D., 2002. Marine reptiles fom the Nanaimo Group (Upper Cretaceous) of Vancouver Island. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 39: 1591–1603.Google Scholar
Pompeckj, J.F., 1910. Über einen Fund von Mosasaurier-Resten im Ober-Senon von Haldem. Jahresberichte der niedersächsischen geologischen Vereinigung zu Hannover 3: 122–140.Google Scholar
Riegraf, W., 1995. Radiolarien, Diatomeen, Cephalopoden und Stratigraphie im pelagischen Campanium Westfalens (Oberkreide, NW-Deutschland). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 197: 129–200.Google Scholar
Russell, D.A., 1967. Systematics and morphology of American mosasaurs (Reptilia, Sauria). Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University 23: 1–241.Google Scholar
Russell, D.A., 1970. The vertebrate fauna of the Selma Formation of Alabama, Part Vu, The mosasaurs. Fieldiana, Geology Memoirs 3:369–380.Google Scholar
Sachs, S., 2000. Mosasaurier-Reste aus der Ober-Kreide von Nordrhein-Westfalen. Geologie und Paläontologie in Westfalen 56: 35–44.Google Scholar
Shannon, S.W., 1975. Selected Alabama mosasaurs. University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; unpublished Masters Thesis: 89 pp.Google Scholar
Von der Marek, W., 1858. Über einige Wirbeltiere, Cruster und Cephalopoden der Westfälischen Kreide. Zeitschrift der deutschen geologischen Gesellschaft 10: 231–271.Google Scholar
Von der Marek, W., 1892. Die vorzeitlichen Reptilien und Fische Westfalens. In: Landois, H. (ed.): Westfalens Tierleben in Wort und Bild, 3. Die Reptilien,.Amphibien und Fische, 1. Schöningh (Paderborn): 440 pp.Google Scholar
Von Meyer, H., 1856. Helochelis Danubia, aus dem Grünsande von Kehlheim in Bayern. Palaeontographica 4: 96–105.Google Scholar
Williston, S.W., 1898. The Upper Cretaceous of Kansas. University Geological Survey Kansas 4: 28–32.Google Scholar
Wolf, E.O., 1995. Sedimentologie, Paläogeographie und Faziesentwicklung der Allochthonite des Campans von Beckum/Zentrales Munsterland. Berliner geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen E16: 305–333.Google Scholar
Ziegler, P.A., 1990. Geological atlas of western and central Europe. Shell (Amsterdam): 239 pp.Google Scholar