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Marine reptiles (Plesiosauria and Mosasauridae) from the Puskwaskau Formation (Santonian–Campanian), west-central Alberta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Phil R. Bell ,
Federico Fanti ,
Mark T. Mitchell  and
Philip J. Currie
Phil R. Bell
Affiliation:
Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Initiative, Clairmont, Alberta T0H 0W0 Canada University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351 Australia,
Federico Fanti
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, 40127, Italy,
Mark T. Mitchell
Affiliation:
Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Drumheller, Alberta T0J 0Y0, Canada,
Philip J. Currie
Affiliation:
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada,
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Abstract

Plesiosaurs and mosasaurs are identified from the Puskwaskau Formation of west-central Alberta, Canada. These deposits record the final stages during which the Western Interior Seaway remained open to the Boreal Sea to the North and therefore are important for determining the ranges of high-latitude marine reptiles. Polycotylid and elasmosaurid plesiosaurs shared these waters with russellosaurine (including plioplatecarpine) mosasaurs suggesting a diverse ecology of large-bodied marine predators occupied these high-latitude waters in the early Campanian. This locality, situated at 65°N paleolatitude, helps link the poorly known faunas from northern Canada with the better-known faunas from central and southern North America. Rare articulated material from the Puskwaskau Formation urges further investigation of this poorly explored unit.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 88 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 187 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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