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A review of Australian mosasaur occurrences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2016

B.P. Kear ,
J.A. Long  and
J.E. Martin
B.P. Kear*
Affiliation:
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005 South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000
J.A. Long
Affiliation:
Western Australian Museum, Perth, Western Australia 6000 Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 3000 (current address)
J.E. Martin
Affiliation:
Museum of Geology, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701, USA
*
* Corresponding author. Email: kear.ben@saugov.sa.gov.au
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Abstract

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Mosasaurs are rare in Australia with fragmentary specimens known only from the Cenomanian-lower Turonian Molecap Greensand (Perth Basin), Campanian - lower Maastrichtian Korojon Calcarenite (Carnarvon Basin), and upper Maastrichtian Miria Formation (Carnarvon Basin), Western Australia. These units were laid down during a near-continuous marine inundation of the western margin of the Australian landmass (which followed separation from India in the Valanginian and genesis of the Indian Ocean) in the Early-Late Cretaceous. The Australian mosasaur record incorporates evidence of derived mosasaurids (mainly plioplatecarpines); however, as yet no specimen can be conclusively diagnosed to genus or species level. The fragmentary nature of the remains provides little basis for direct palaeobiogeographic comparisons. However, correlation with existing data on associated vertebrates, macroinvertebrates and microfossils suggests that the Western Australian mosasaur fauna might have been transitional in nature (particularly following palaeobiogeographic separation of the northern and southern Indian Oceans during the mid-Campanian), potentially sharing elements with both northern Tethyan and austral high-latitude regions.

Keywords

MosasaursLate CretaceousAustraliapalaeobiogeography
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 84 , Special Issue 3: Proceedings of the First Mosasaur Meeting , September 2005 , pp. 307 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2005

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