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Late Cretaceous sauropod tooth morphotypes may provide supporting evidence for faunal connections between North Africa and Southern Europe.
PeerJ. 2018; 6:e5925.P

Abstract

The Cretaceous Kem Kem beds of Morocco and equivalent beds in Algeria have produced a rich fossil assemblage, yielding, amongst others, isolated sauropod teeth, which can be used in species diversity studies. These Albian-Cenomanian (∼113-93.9 Ma) strata rarely yield sauropod body fossils, therefore, isolated teeth can help to elucidate the faunal assemblages from North Africa, and their relations with those of contemporaneous beds and geographically close assemblages. Eighteen isolated sauropod teeth from three localities (Erfoud and Taouz, Morocco, and Algeria) are studied here, to assess whether the teeth can be ascribed to a specific clade, and whether different tooth morphotypes can be found in the samples. Two general morphotypes are found, based on enamel wrinkling and general tooth morphology. Morphotype I, with mainly rugose enamel wrinkling, pronounced carinae, lemon-shaped to (sub)cylindrical cross-section and mesiodistal tapering towards an apical tip, shows affinities to titanosauriforms and titanosaurs. Morphotype II, characterized by more smooth enamel, cylindrical cross-section, rectangular teeth with no apical tapering and both labial and lingual wear facets, shows similarities to rebbachisaurids. Moreover, similarities are found between these northwest African tooth morphotypes, and tooth morphotypes from titanosaurs and rebbachisaurids from both contemporaneous finds from north and central Africa, as well as from the latest Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian, 83.6 Ma-66.0 Ma) of the Ibero-Armorican Island. These results support previous hypotheses from earlier studies on faunal exchange and continental connections between North Africa and Southern Europe in the Cretaceous.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Holwerda FM
Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands. SNSB-Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and GeoBioCenter, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
Díez Díaz V
Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions-und Biodiversitätsforschung, Berlin, Germany. Humboldt Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Blanco A
SNSB-Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Centro de Investigacións Científicas Avanzadas (CICA), Facultade de Ciencias, Universidade da Coruña, A Coruña, Spain.
Montie R
Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands. SNSB-Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and GeoBioCenter, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
Reumer JWF
Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

30473934

Citation

Holwerda, Femke M., et al. "Late Cretaceous Sauropod Tooth Morphotypes May Provide Supporting Evidence for Faunal Connections Between North Africa and Southern Europe." PeerJ, vol. 6, 2018, pp. e5925.
Holwerda FM, Díez Díaz V, Blanco A, et al. Late Cretaceous sauropod tooth morphotypes may provide supporting evidence for faunal connections between North Africa and Southern Europe. PeerJ. 2018;6:e5925.
Holwerda, F. M., Díez Díaz, V., Blanco, A., Montie, R., & Reumer, J. W. F. (2018). Late Cretaceous sauropod tooth morphotypes may provide supporting evidence for faunal connections between North Africa and Southern Europe. PeerJ, 6, e5925. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5925
Holwerda FM, et al. Late Cretaceous Sauropod Tooth Morphotypes May Provide Supporting Evidence for Faunal Connections Between North Africa and Southern Europe. PeerJ. 2018;6:e5925. PubMed PMID: 30473934.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Late Cretaceous sauropod tooth morphotypes may provide supporting evidence for faunal connections between North Africa and Southern Europe. AU - Holwerda,Femke M, AU - Díez Díaz,Verónica, AU - Blanco,Alejandro, AU - Montie,Roel, AU - Reumer,Jelle W F, Y1 - 2018/11/12/ PY - 2018/03/14/received PY - 2018/10/13/accepted PY - 2018/11/27/entrez PY - 2018/11/27/pubmed PY - 2018/11/27/medline KW - Africa KW - Diversity KW - Europe KW - Late Cretaceous KW - Teeth KW - Titanosauria SP - e5925 EP - e5925 JF - PeerJ JO - PeerJ VL - 6 N2 - The Cretaceous Kem Kem beds of Morocco and equivalent beds in Algeria have produced a rich fossil assemblage, yielding, amongst others, isolated sauropod teeth, which can be used in species diversity studies. These Albian-Cenomanian (∼113-93.9 Ma) strata rarely yield sauropod body fossils, therefore, isolated teeth can help to elucidate the faunal assemblages from North Africa, and their relations with those of contemporaneous beds and geographically close assemblages. Eighteen isolated sauropod teeth from three localities (Erfoud and Taouz, Morocco, and Algeria) are studied here, to assess whether the teeth can be ascribed to a specific clade, and whether different tooth morphotypes can be found in the samples. Two general morphotypes are found, based on enamel wrinkling and general tooth morphology. Morphotype I, with mainly rugose enamel wrinkling, pronounced carinae, lemon-shaped to (sub)cylindrical cross-section and mesiodistal tapering towards an apical tip, shows affinities to titanosauriforms and titanosaurs. Morphotype II, characterized by more smooth enamel, cylindrical cross-section, rectangular teeth with no apical tapering and both labial and lingual wear facets, shows similarities to rebbachisaurids. Moreover, similarities are found between these northwest African tooth morphotypes, and tooth morphotypes from titanosaurs and rebbachisaurids from both contemporaneous finds from north and central Africa, as well as from the latest Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian, 83.6 Ma-66.0 Ma) of the Ibero-Armorican Island. These results support previous hypotheses from earlier studies on faunal exchange and continental connections between North Africa and Southern Europe in the Cretaceous. SN - 2167-8359 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/30473934/Late_Cretaceous_sauropod_tooth_morphotypes_may_provide_supporting_evidence_for_faunal_connections_between_North_Africa_and_Southern_Europe_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -