See more from this Division: Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies
See more from this Session: Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain Paleontology
Abstract:
A recently discovered vertebrate fauna from a storm bed in the Calvert Bluff Formation contains a diversity of sharks, rays, fish, turtles, and crocodilians. The faunal assemblage is most similar to those found near the P-E Boundary in the Tuscahoma and Bashi Formations in Mississippi. This marine Calvert Bluff outcrop (likely equivalent to the term Sabinetown, though lacking glauconite) may be latest Paleocene and would then contain the oldest record of thresher shark (Alopias) and sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon). Those taxa are absent in the much larger sample from Mississippi. The Reklaw fauna is diverse with the presence of batoids (Myliobatis and Rhinoptera), sharks (Striatolamia and Serratolamna), and a large lizard. The Weches Formation shark fauna is composed of Synodontaspis, Cretolamna, and Galeocerdo. The Cook Mountain Formation may be the most diverse assemblage with a large number of marine and terrestrial vertebrates including sharks, rays, fish, turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodilians, mammals, and birds. This diverse eastern Texas fossil assemblage will allow for the examination of the biotic response to climate change along the Gulf Coast in the Paleogene and should aid in the further correlation of exposed rock units.
See more from this Division: Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies
See more from this Session: Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain Paleontology