Waipara River (M34/f462) (Cretaceous of New Zealand)

Where: South Island, New Zealand (43.1° S, 172.6° E: paleocoordinates 56.4° S, 153.8° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Conway Formation, Early/Lower Maastrichtian (70.6 - 66.0 Ma)

• "The Conway Formation in the Waipara River area has been dated as Haumurian-Teurian (Late Cretaceous-early Paleocene) based on dinoflagellate biostratigraphy (Roncaglia et al. 1999, Crampton et al. 2000). Sediment samples from CM Zfr 145 yielded a dinocyst assemblage attributable to the upper Alterbidinium acutulum Zone or lower Manumiella druggii Zone (early late Maastrichtian; Wilson et al. 2005)."

Environment/lithology: offshore shelf; massive, bioturbated, fine-grained, glauconitic, gray, silty sandstone

• "The bones were encased in a large, oblate, calcareous concretion from the middle part of the Conway Formation (Upper Cretaceous) which is predominantly a grey, poorly indurated, massive, jarositic, slightly glauconitic fine silty sandstone (Browne & Field 1985). Pervasive bioturbation has almost entirely obliterated primary sedimentary structures; only a few major bedding surfaces are preserved. The sediment hosting the concretion is poorly sorted fine sandstone (framework grains 0.1-0.2 mm) dominated by quartz with lesser feldspar and labile rock fragments all set in a matrix of clay minerals with minor glauconite and finely disseminated pyrite. Within the concretion, the clay matrix has been replaced by calcite cement. The concretions at Waipara River occur in thick beds of dark brown-grey, organic-rich sediment that alternate with light grey beds largely devoid of concretions. Intensive bioturbation of all beds incorporates indeterminate vertical, horizontal and inclined burrows consistent with an ichnofabric index of 4 or 5 for shelf environments (sensu Droser & Bottjer 1986)."

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: concretion

Collected by John Lester in 1982; reposited in the CM

Collection methods: mechanical,

• Concretions removed as large blocks

Primary reference: N. Hiller and A. A. Mannering. 2005. A new elasmosaurid plesiosaur (Sauropterygia) from the Upper Haumurian (Maastrichtian) of the South Island, New Zealand. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 51(1):1-11 [E. Vlachos/F. Aspromonte]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 100356: authorized by Matthew Carrano, entered by Hallie Street on 08.12.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Plesiosauria - Elasmosauridae
Elasmosauridae indet.
Elasmosauridae indet. Cope 1869 elasmosaur
CM Zfr 145, CM Zfr 159 (partial skeleton comprising more than 115 bones)