REPTILES MARINOS JURÁSICOS Y CRETÁCICOS DE LA PATAGONIA ARGENTINA: SU APORTE AL CONOCIMIENTO DE LA HERPETOFAUNA MESOZOICA

GASPARINI, Z.,; FERNÀNDEZ, M.; DE LA FUENTE, M.; SALGADO, L.

PUBLICACION ESPECIAL - ASOCIACION PALEONTOLOGICA ARGENTINA

Asociación Paleontológica Argentina

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2007 vol. 11 p. 125 - 136

0328-347X

The history of the knowledge of the different groups of Mesozoic marine reptiles of Patagonia can be divided into two major periods: the first one from the end of the XIX century up to 1940, during which the findings were scarce and few taxa are currently valid. The second, from the 1940’s to date. The biogeographic patterns of the marine reptiles during most of the Mesozoic could be analysed on the basis of systematic studies of the Patagonian records. One of the most outstanding paleogeographic events of the Jurassic was the dismembering of Pangea, which gave place to the Caribbean Corridor connecting, probably intermittently, the Western Tethys with the Eastern Pacific. The close affinities between the Jurassic marine reptiles of Argentina and Chile with those of Europe suggest that such corridor would have been one of the routes used by the marine reptiles for their dispersion. Thus, the middle Jurassic forms of Patagonia and Chile belong to genera recorded also in Europe (Metriorhynchus, Stenopterygius, cf. Muraenosarus and cf. Cryptoclidus), or to taxa with close phylogenetic relationships (Maresaurus,  Mollesaurus). This is also seen in most of the genera of the Late Jurassic (Ophthalmosaurus, Aegirosaurus, Metriorhynchus, Geosaurus, Dakosaurus, Liopleurodon, Pliosaurus). Likewise, the finding of plesiosaurs and mosasaurs of the end of the Cretaceous in Patagonia arose a new context for the discussion of the biogeographic, distribution of these predators in Southern Gondwana.