Deep Cut Spoils (Cretaceous of the United States)

Where: New Castle County, Delaware (39.5° N, 75.7° W: paleocoordinates 39.0° N, 45.7° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

When: Merchantville Formation (Matawan Group), Early/Lower Campanian (83.5 - 70.6 Ma)

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; fine-grained, glauconitic, micaceous, gray, blue, silty sandstone

• Dark gray to dark blue, very micaceous, glauconitic, sandy silt and silty fine sand. This formation has many burrows made by benthic organisms and contains numerous siderite nodules. It has an extensive invertebrate macrofauna has yielded large ammonites and numerous arthropods. The veretebrate remains are sparse but include many important finds including turtles, mosasaurs, pterosaurs, bony fish, as well as shark material. The sediments were deposited in an open marine, shallow water environment.

Size class: macrofossils

Primary reference: E. M. Lauginiger and E. F. Hartstein. 1983. A guide to fossil sharks, skates, and rays from the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal area, Delaware. Open File Report - Delaware Geological Survey 21:1-63 [M. Uhen/M. Shalap/M. Shalap]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 126812: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Margaret Shalap on 18.04.2012

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Chondrichthyes
 Lamniformes - Otodontidae
"Cretolamna appendiculata" = Cretalamna appendiculata
"Cretolamna appendiculata" = Cretalamna appendiculata Agassiz 1835 mackerel shark
 Lamniformes - Anacoracidae
Squalicorax kaupi
Squalicorax kaupi Agassiz 1843 crow shark
 Lamniformes - Mitsukurinidae
Scapanorhynchus texanus
Scapanorhynchus texanus Roemer 1852 goblin shark
 Lamniformes - Alopiidae
Paranomotodon angustidens
Paranomotodon angustidens Reuss 1845 thresher shark
 Rajiformes - Sclerorhynchidae
Ischyrhiza mira
Ischyrhiza mira Leidy 1856 ray