Ichthyosaur vertebra punctured by pliosaur tooth + Newark Supergroup Rift Basins with Triassic-Jurassic fossils and footprint assemblages (free pdfs)

[Ben Creisler]

Ben Creisler

bcre...@gmail.com

New papers not yet mentioned:

Free pdf:

Caleb M. Gordon, Giovanni Serafini, and Daniel L. Brinkman (2026)
Punctured Vertebra Confirms Pliosaurid Predation on Ichthyosaurs with Implications for Thalassophonean Feeding Behavior in the Upper Jurassic of Europe.
Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 67(1): 77-100
doi: https://doi.org/10.3374/014.067.0105
https://bioone.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-peabody-museum-of-natural-history/volume-67/issue-1/014.067.0105/Punctured-Vertebra-Confirms-Pliosaurid-Predation-on-Ichthyosaurs-with-Implications-for/10.3374/014.067.0105.full

The Yale Peabody Museum contains an underappreciated assortment of marine reptile fossils from the Jurassic of Europe. We describe one such fossil, comprising two individually cataloged specimens (YPM VP 000340 and YPM VP 065978), which Othniel Charles Marsh received from Europe (possibly from Alfred Nicholson Leeds) in the late 1800s. The fossil is an ichthyosaur vertebra (YPM VP 000340) punctured through the notochordal pit by a large pliosaur tooth (YPM VP 065978). Morphological considerations, aided by high-resolution µ-computed tomography scanning and three-dimensional image-stacking, enable us to assign the tooth to a Pliosaurus Owen 1841 from the Late Jurassic. Subsequent stratigraphic considerations lead us to assign the vertebra to Ophthalmosauria Motani 1999. The fossil therefore confirms a direct trophic interaction between these taxa and may shed new light on the feeding and prey manipulation behavior of macrocarnivorous pliosaurids.

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Free pdf:

Paul E. Olsen and Nicholas G. McDonald (2026)
Environmental Context of Triassic-Jurassic Lagerstätten in Newark Supergroup Rift Basins, Eastern North America, with Special Reference to Footprint Assemblages
Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 67(1): 101-185
doi: https://doi.org/10.3374/014.067.0106
https://bioone.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-peabody-museum-of-natural-history/volume-67/issue-1/014.067.0106/Environmental-Context-of-Triassic-Jurassic-Lagerst%c3%a4tten-in-Newark-Supergroup-Rift/10.3374/014.067.0106.full


Triassic-Jurassic Lagerstätten in eastern North America record biotic and environmental changes that set the stage for the era of dinosaurian ecological dominance that lasted 136 million years. This paper describes the morphologic, systematic, stratigraphic, temporal, and environmental context of these extraordinary fossil assemblages within strata of the vast, paleotropical eastern North American Newark Supergroup. Formed during the initial rifting of the supercontinent of Pangea, these mostly lacustrine and fluvial deposits combine a super-abundance of tetrapod footprints, particularly those of dinosaurs, with a physical stratigraphy that reflects orbitally paced climate cyclicity, which in turn provides a high-resolution stratigraphy for most of the record. Some Newarkian footprint Lagerstätten are exceptional, displaying detailed scale patterns, associated body impressions, and, plausibly, feather homologues. These strata contain other Lagerstätten that yield superbly preserved insects, fishes, and reptiles. More conventional assemblages of skeletal remains, tracks, fishes, and plants also abound. Most Lagerstätten and other assemblages occur in sedimentary cycles that reflect the expansion and contraction of perennial lakes in monsoonal climates. Newark Supergroup faunal and floral assemblages, and the strata they come from, document consequential events during the early Mesozoic, most notably those surrounding the continental end-Triassic mass extinction and the ensuing Jurassic recovery.

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