SW corner, Seymour Island (Bed 3) (Cretaceous of Antarctica)

Also known as Elasmosaur locality

Where: Antarctica (64.3° S, 56.9° W: paleocoordinates 62.6° S, 67.4° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: López de Bertodano Formation, Early/Lower Maastrichtian (70.6 - 66.0 Ma)

• López de Betodano Formation, approximately ‘unit 3’ of Macellari (1986). Early Maastrichtian, C31R (Bowman et al. 2014, Milanese et al. 2019).

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; poorly lithified, burrowed, shelly/skeletal, gray, sandy siltstone and poorly lithified sandstone

• Clastic (poorly consolidated sandstones and siltstones) and richly fossiliferous formation representing shallow shelf marine to coastal deltaic facies. The rocks from which the bones were collected consist of gray sandy siltstones with scarce annelid worm tubes and poorly preserved gastropod and bivalve shells.

Size class: macrofossils

• MLP 82-I-28-1, an incomplete skeleton comprising 15 cervical, three pectorals, 21 dorsal, three sacral, and 22 caudal vertebrae, an almost complete left hind limb, some dorsal ribs,

•incomplete coracoids and fragments of the scapulae

Collected by P. Rial, J. C. Muñoz, R. T. Berté, A. Maisterrena and V. Melemenis in 1982; reposited in the MLP

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

• This specimen (MLP 82-I-28-1) was embedded in permafrost, which made extraction very difficult.

Primary reference: Z. Gasparini, F. Del Valle, and R. Goñi. 1984. An elasmosaur (Reptilia, Plesiosauria) of the Upper Cretaceous in the Antarctic. Contribuciones del Instituto Antártico Argentino 305:1-24 [J. Alroy/E. Leckey/F. Aspromonte]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 232362: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Franco Aspromonte on 10.11.2023

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Plesiosauria - Elasmosauridae
Elasmosauridae indet.
Elasmosauridae indet. Cope 1869 elasmosaur
MLP 82-I-28-1, an incomplete skeleton comprising 15 cervical, three pectorals, 21 dorsal, three sacral, and 22 caudal vertebrae, an almost complete left hind limb, some dorsal ribs, incomplete coracoids and fragments of the scapulae