75 m west of Tutuiri Creek (CH/f0652) Maunganui:nodular-phosphorite bone package (Cretaceous to of New Zealand)

Where: Chatham Islands Territory, New Zealand (43.8° S, 176.7° W: paleocoordinates 58.7° S, 136.6° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: NPB Member (Takatika Grit Formation), Middle Campanian to Middle Campanian (83.5 - 61.6 Ma)

• The uppermost horizons of the nodular phosphoritebone package (NPB) along Maunganui Beach.

•The Takatika Grit crops out as low-lying coastal cliffs and a series of wave-cut platforms along Maunganui Beach.

•The well-constrained New Zealand biostratigraphic record has resulted in a mid-Campanian to mid-Danian age range for the Takatika Grit due to its rich dinoflagellate assemblages, correlated to the zonation proposed for New Zealand by Crampton et al. (2000). The Takatika Grit comprises mainly mid-Campanian species typical of the Satyrodinium haumuriense Zone plus a slightly less conspicuous Lower Paleocene component (Palaeocystodinium golzowense Zone) (Wilson et al., 2005). This zonation was based on samples that were removed from matrix on and around an unidentified mosasaur (Zfr 164) from the NPB (Wilson et al., 2005). In addition to the Campanian and Danian palynomorphs, Wilson (1982) recorded New Zealand taxa characteristic of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary. The palynomorphic data indicate that the phosphate nodules and fossils of the NPB are Late Cretaceous in age, but due to sedimentary starvation and reworking, Paleocene microfossil taxa are recorded.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: fine-grained, glauconitic, phosphatic, quartzose, green, conglomeratic, calcareous mudstone

• These beds represent a period of severely low sedimentation rates and sea-level fluctuations that resulted in the formation of a lag-style accumulation of nodules and fossils alike.
• The Takatika Grit is a <10 mthick, well-bedded, dark green-grey, poorly sorted, glauconitic lithic wackestone dominated by fine, glauconitic grains, quartz and metamorphic rock fragments, within a clay matrix, commonly supported by siliceous cement. The most prominent feature of this deposit is the abundant pebble to boulder-sized phosphate nodules occurring mid-section in a succinct package of beds, known as the nodular-phosphorite bone package (NPB) (Stilwell et al., 2006).

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by Christopher P. Consoli, Jeffrey D. Stilwell in 1995, 2003, 2004

Collection methods: surface (float), surface (in situ), mechanical,

• Mosasaurine mosasaurs and the elasmosaurid plesiosaurs were all found in the uppermost horizons of the nodular phosphorite-bone package (NPB) along Maunganui Beach, Chatham Island, New Zealand. These were collected over a series of Austral summers of 1995, 2003, and 2004 as part of expeditions to the Chatham Islands. The localities have been given New Zealand Fossil Record File numbers and specimens are housed in University of Otago (OU numbers), Canterbury Museum, Christchurch (Zfr numbers), and GNS palaeontological collections (GS and CD numbers).

Primary reference: C. P. Consoli and J. D. Stilwell. 2009. Late Cretaceous marine reptiles (Elasmosauridae and Mosasauridae) of the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. Cretaceous Research 30(4):991-999 [R. Benson/R. Benson/F. Aspromonte]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 141989: authorized by Roger Benson, entered by Roger Benson on 04.04.2013

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• The fossil assemblage [*of the nodular-phosphorite bone package*] includes fish, sharks, Edaphodon chimaeroids, theropod dinosaurs, birds, ammonite Pachydiscus sp., nautiloid Procymatoceras sp., gastropods (Euspira, Protodolium, Eriptycha), a mytilid bivalve, along with a diverse range of hexactinellid sponges (Consoli and Stilwell, 2005; Consoli, 2006; Stilwell et al., 2006; Stilwell, 2007; Consoli, 2008). The terrestrial flora includes an araucarian conifer, as well as other gymnosperms and angiosperms (Stilwell et al., 2006).
Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Squamata - Mosasauridae
Prognathodon sp.
Prognathodon sp. Dollo 1889 mosasaur
CD649-CD656, ribs and vertebrae