Benjamin P Kear

Academic paper

35

1

33-47

Marine reptile remains from Early Cretaceous (Aptian/Albian) deposists of the Darwin Formation, Northern Territory, are described from the collections of the South Australian Museum. The material includes vertebra and limb girdle elements from ichthyosaurs and plesiosauroids, as well as the first described pliosaurid remains from the Northern Territory. The pliosaurid specimen (a single femur) is attributed to the small-bodied (up to 3 m in length) freshwater/near-shore marine taxon Leptocleidus, supporting interpretation of the Darwin Formation as representing a near-shore marine depositional environment. A comparison of the Darwin Formation marine reptile fauna with those known from Early Cretaceous deposits elsewhere in Australia, indicates greatest compositional similarity to the Hauterivian-Barremian Birdrong Sandstone fauna of Western Australia. A potential link between the distribution of some marine reptile taxa (eg pliosaurids) and the prevailing depositional environment is also suggested

English