Reptiles from Late Cretaceous coastal environments of northern Patagonia

ZULMA GASPARINI; MARCELO S. DE LA FUENTE; MARTA FERNÁNDEZ; PAULA BONA

PUBLICACION ESPECIAL - ASOCIACION PALEONTOLOGICA ARGENTINA

Asociación Paleontológica Argentina

Lugar: Cuidad Autónoma de Buenos Aires; Año: 2001 p. 101 - 104

0328-347X

  Toward the end of the Cretaceous the Atlantic Ocean covered parts of central-western Patagonia forming a wide archipielago. Remains or terrestrial and marine reptiles have been recorded in the Campanian and Maastrichtian of this area in rocks that represent coastal or marginal environments. These taphocenoses are especially interesting because they include taxa not only of different environmentals requirements, but also of different biogeographical backgrounds. The presence of a wide archipielago is a plausible explanation of the association recorder, such as plesiosaurs with continental chelids, boids and dinosaurs (e.g. La Colonia, Chubut; Ranquil-Co, Mendoza), or plesiosaurs and mosasaurs with chelids (e.g., Lui-Malal, Mendoza). From a paleobiogeographic pont of view, some taxa have mainly south Gondwanan distribution (chelids, meiolanids, the plesiosaur Aristonectes Cabrera), others taxa are related to North American taxa (the plesiosaur Sulcusuchus Gasparini and Spalletti, hadrosaurid dinosaurs); and still others were cosmopolitan toward the end of the Mesozoic (elasmosaurids and mosasaurines).