References
Reference
Nicholls, Elizabeth L. and Meckert, Dirk (2002) Marine reptiles from the Nanaimo Group (Upper Cretaceous) of Vancouver Island; Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 39, pp.1591-1603
Marine reptiles from the Nanaimo Group (Upper Cretaceous) of Vancouver Island
Principal Author
Elizabeth L. Nicholls
Other Authors
Dirk Meckert
Header
Academic paper
Journal
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
Volume
39
Pages
1591-1603
Abstract
A new fauna of fossil marine reptiles is described from the late Cretaceous Nanaimo Group of Vancouver Island. The fossils are from the Haslam and Pender formations (upper Santonian) near Courtenay, British Columbia, and include elasmosaurid plesiosaurs, turtles, and mosasaurs. This is only the second fauna of late Cretaceous marine reptiles known from the Pacific Coast, the other being from the Moreno Formation of California (Maastrichitan). The new Nanaimo Group fossil are some 15 million years older than those from the Moreno Formation. However, like the California fauna, there are no polycotylid plesiosaurs, and one of the mosasaurs is a new genus. This reinforces the proviciality of the Pacific faunas and their isolation from the contemporaneous faunas of the Western Interior Seaway.
Language
English