Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T02:04:22.811Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The first record of spiral coprolites from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Judith River Group, Upper Cretaceous) southern Alberta, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Clive E. Coy*
Affiliation:
Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Box 7500, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada T0J 0Y0

Abstract

Spiral coprolites from the Upper Cretaceous of North America are poorly known. Enterospirae (fossilized intestines) reported from the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation of western Kansas (Stewart, 1978) were disputed by McAllister (1985), who felt they represented spiral coprolites similar to those described from the Permian by Neumayer (1904). Previously described coprolites from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta are small, unstructured, ellipsoidal forms thought to derive from a crocodilian or terrestrial, carnivorous reptile of necrophagic or piscivorous habits (Waldman, 1970; Waldman and Hopkins, 1970).

Type
Paleontological Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Buckland, W. 1835. On the discovery of coprolites, or fossil faeces in the Lias at Lyme Regis, and in Other Formations. Transactions of the Geological Society of London, Series 2, 3:223236.Google Scholar
Duffin, C. J. 1979. Coprolites: a brief review with reference to specimens from the Rhaetic bone-beds of England and South Wales. Mercian Geologist, 7:191204.Google Scholar
Eberth, D. A. In press. Origin and significance of mud-filled incised-valleys (Upper Cretaceous) in southern Alberta, Canada. Sedimentology.Google Scholar
Eberth, D. A., and Hamblin, A. P. 1993. Tectonic, stratigraphic, and sedimentologic significance of a regional discontinuity in the upper Judith River Group (Belly River Wedge) of Southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Northern Montana. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 30:174200.Google Scholar
Feldman, H. R., Archer, A. W., Kvale, E. P., Cunningham, C. R., Maples, C. G., and West, R. R. 1993. A tidal model of Carboniferous konservat-lagerstatten formation. Palaios, 8:485498.Google Scholar
Fisher, D. C. 1981. Crocodilian scatology, microvertebrate concentrations, and enamel-less teeth. Paleobiology, 7:262275.Google Scholar
Gruber, S. H., and Keyes, R. S. 1981. Keeping sharks for research, p. 373402. In Hawkins, A. D. (ed.), Aquarium Systems. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
McAllister, J. A. 1985. Reevaluation of the formation of spiral coprolites. The University of Kansas, Paleontological Contributions, Paper 114, 12 p.Google Scholar
McAllister, J. A. 1987. Phylogenetic distribution and morphological reassessment of the intestines of fossil and modern fishes. Zoologische Jahrbucher für Anatomie, 115:281294 Google Scholar
Neumayer, L., 1904. Die Koprolithen des Perms von Texas. Palaeontographica, 51:121128.Google Scholar
Stevens, J. D., (ed.). 1988. Sharks. Merehurst Press, London, 240 p.Google Scholar
Stewart, J. D. 1978. Enterospirae (Fossil Intestines) from the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation of Western Kansas. The University of Kansas, Paleontological Contributions, Paper 89, Part 3, 19 p.Google Scholar
Waldman, M. 1970. Comments on a Cretaceous coprolite from Alberta, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 7:10081012.Google Scholar
Waldman, M., and Hopkins, W. S. 1970. Coprolites from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, with a description of their microflora. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 7:12951303.Google Scholar
Williams, M. E. 1972. The origin of “Spiral Coprolites”. The University of Kansas, Paleontological Contributions, Paper 59, 19 p.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. S. 1917. The so-called coprolites of ichthyosaurs and labyrinthodonts. Geological Magazine, 54:540542.Google Scholar
Zangerl, R., and Richardson, E. S. 1963. The paleoecological history of two Pennsylvanian black shales. Chicago Natural History Museum Fieldiana, 4,352 p.Google Scholar