A NEW POLYCOTYLID PLESIOSAUR (REPTILIA: SAUROPTERYGIA) FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS BEARPAW FORMATION IN SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA

2005/08/03 by Tamaki Sato · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Amphibian and Reptile Biology #Ichthyology and Marine Biology #Geology #Cretaceous #Paleontology #Dorsum #Crest #Anatomy #Biology

paper · doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079[0969:anpprs]2.0.co;2

openalex publication_date 2005/08/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06

Abstract

A new species of polycotylid, Dolichorhynchops herschelensis, is described based on a well-preserved skeleton from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) Bearpaw Formation of Herschel, Saskatchewan. Its small size as an adult, the sharp rise in front of the parietal crest, and the straight ilium with narrow dorsal end are diagnostic features of this taxon. This is the first polycotylid plesiosaur described from the Bearpaw Formation, deposited during the critical period when polycotylids were disappearing from the Western Interior of North America.

Citations

• The global Campanian-Maastrichtian stage boundary
• North American Plesiosaurs Trinacromerum
• North American plesiosaurs Elasmosaurus, Cimoliasaurus, and Polycotylus
• Cretaceous marine reptiles of Australia: a review of taxonomy and distribution
• Paleobiogeography of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway of North America: the vertebrate evidence
• On the cranial anatomy of the polycotylid plesiosaurs, including new material ofPolycotylus latipinnis, Cope, from Alabama
• Comparative Cranial Anatomy of Two North American Cretaceous Plesiosaurs
• Synopsis of the Extinct Batrachia, Reptilia and Aves of North America
• A review of short-necked plesiosaurs from the Cretaceous of the Western Interior, North America

Cited by

• Cranial anatomy and taxonomy ofDolichorhynchops bonnerinew combination, a polycotylid (Sauropterygia: Plesiosauria) from the Pierre Shale of Wyoming and South Dakota
• Dolichorhynchops [wikipedia]