SW corner, Seymour Island (Bed 2) (Cretaceous of Antarctica)

Also known as Elasmosaur locality

Where: Antarctica (64.3° S, 56.9° W: paleocoordinates 62.7° S, 67.4° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

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

• approx. 100 m from the bottom of the formation

•bed 2, but section unclear

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: transition zone or lower shoreface; 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

• ZPAL R.8, pectoral, dorsal, and caudal vertebral centra, femur, tibia, and fragments of the humerus, scapula, and ischia

Preservation: trace

Primary reference: L. Fostowicz-Frelik and A. Gazdzicki. 2001. Anatomy and histology of plesiosaur bones from the Late Cretaceous of Seymour Island, Antarctic Paninsula. In A. Gaździcki (ed.), Palaeontologica Polonica 60:7-32 [J. Alroy/E. Leckey/F. Aspromonte]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 35286: authorized by John Alroy, entered by Erin Leckey on 24.11.2003

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• each of the two refs reports their own elasmosaurus

•JA: Leckey originally entered a long list of cephalopods, bivalves, etc., but I believe these pertain to bed 2 in general, not to the elasmosaur locality

Show authors, comments, and common names
Polychaeta
 Sabellida - Serpulidae
Rotularia sp.
Bivalvia
  -
Bivalvia indet.
Bivalvia indet. Linnaeus 1758 clam
Gastropoda
  -
Gastropoda indet.
Gastropoda indet. Cuvier 1795 snail
Reptilia
 Plesiosauria - Elasmosauridae
Elasmosauridae indet.
Elasmosauridae indet. Cope 1869 elasmosaur
ZPAL R.8, pectoral, dorsal, and caudal vertebral centra, femur, tibia, and fragments of the humerus, scapula, and ischia