Gram Brick Works: Tortonian, Denmark

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
unclassified
Aquilophusus semiglaber
Aquilophusus puggaardi
Narone rothi
Invertebrata indet.
Turitella cochilas
Ramassamy 2016
Gastropoda - Turritellidae
Archimediella cochlias
Gastropoda - Neogastropoda - Borsoniidae
Bathytoma cataphracta (Brocchi 1814)
Gastropoda - Neogastropoda - Turridae
Brachytoma obtusangula
Gemmula badensis
Gemmula annae
Gastropoda - Neogastropoda - Costellariidae
Uromitra cimbrica
Gastropoda - Neogastropoda - Muricidae
Sipho distinctus
spelled with current rank as Trophon (Sipho)
Gastropoda - Xenophoridae
? Xenophora sp. Fischer von Waldheim 1807
Gastropoda - Naticidae
Natica sp. Scopoli 1777
Gastropoda - Heterostropha - Ringiculidae
Ringicula buccinea (Sowerby 1823)
Gastropoda - Heterostropha - Pyramidellidae
Odostomia conoidea (Brocchi 1814)
Bivalvia - Poromyida - Cuspidariidae
Cuspidaria sp. Dall 1886
Bivalvia - Thraciida - Periplomatidae
Cochlodesma sp. Couthouy 1839
Bivalvia - Cardiida - Glossidae
Isocardia forchhammeri
Bivalvia - Cardiida - Semelidae
? Abra prisma
Bivalvia - Carditida - Astartidae
Astarte vetula
A. vetula reimersi
Carinastarte vetula
Ramassamy 2016
spelled with current rank as Astarte (Carinastarte)
subspecies reinersi
Bivalvia - Nuculida - Nuculidae
Nucula sp. Lamarck 1799
Bivalvia - Nuculanida - Nuculanidae
? Nuculana pygmaea
Bivalvia - Nuculanida - Yoldiidae
Yoldia glaberrima (von Münster 1837)
recombined as Yoldia (Yoldia) glaberrima
Chondrichthyes - Squalomorphii - Hexanchidae
Notidanus primigenius Agassiz 1835
recombined as Notorhynchus primigenius
teeth
Chondrichthyes - Carcharhiniformes - Galeocerdidae
Galeocerdo sp. Müller and Henle 1837
teeth
Chondrichthyes - Lamniformes - Odontaspididae
Odontaspis sp. Agassiz 1838
teeth
Chondrichthyes - Lamniformes - Lamnidae
Isurus sp. Rafinesque 1810
teeth
Oxyrhina hastalis Agassiz 1838
recombined as Carcharodon hastalis
O. hastalis escheri, teeth
Chondrichthyes - Lamniformes - Cetorhinidae
Cetorhinus sp. de Blainville 1816
vertebrae
Acipenseriformes - Acipenseridae
Acipenser sp. Linnaeus 1758
scutes, vertebrae
Mammalia - Cetacea - Ziphiidae
Ziphiidae indet. Gray 1850
Ramassamy and Lauridsen 2019
Dagonodum mojnum n. gen., n. sp. Ramassamy 2016
Ramassamy 2016 1 specimen
Mammalia - Cetacea
Graamocetus longicollis n. gen., n. sp. Hoch 2004
Hoch 2004 1 specimen
Isocetus depauwii Van Beneden and Gervais 1868
Van Beneden 1880
corrected as Isocetus depauwi
Van Beneden did not specify where this animal came from in particular, but McKenna and Bell 1997 say it's from the Gram Formation of Denmark
Mammalia - Cetacea - Cetotheriidae
Mesocetus argillarius n. sp. Roth 1978
1 individual
recombined as Tranatocetus argillarius
postrostral part of the skull, the proximal parts of both lower jaw rami, most of the hyoid bone, thirty three vertebrae, ribs and rib fragments, parts of both scapulae, both humeri and two phalangeal bones.
Mammalia - Cetacea
Uranocetus gramensis n. gen., n. sp. Steeman 2009
Steeman 2009 1 specimen
(4 measurements)
Mammalia - Carnivora - Phocidae
Phocidae indet. (Gray 1821)
original and current combination Phocadae
limb bones reminiscent of Pagophilus groenlandicus and Erignathus barbatus
Pontophoca jutlandica n. sp. Koretsky et al. 2014
Koretsky et al. 2014 1 specimen
Gryphoca nordica Koretsky et al. 2014
Koretsky et al. 2014 1 specimen
Reptilia - Testudines - Dermochelyidae
Psephophorus sp. von Meyer 1847
Actinopteri - Gadiformes - Gadidae
Gadus luscus Linnaeus 1758
recombined as Trisopterus luscus
otoliths
Actinopteri - Acanthuriformes - Sciaenidae
Sciaena holsatica (Koken 1891)
otoliths
see common names

Geography
Country:Denmark State/province:Jutland County:Sonderjylland
Coordinates: 55.3° North, 9.1° East (view map)
Paleocoordinates:55.6° North, 8.1° East
Basis of coordinate:based on nearby landmark
Altitude:47 meters
Geographic resolution:outcrop
Time
Period:Neogene Epoch:Miocene
Stage:Tortonian 10 m.y. bin:Cenozoic 6
Key time interval:Tortonian
Age range of interval:11.62000 - 7.24600 m.y. ago
Age estimate:8.6 to 7.5 Ma (other)
Stratigraphy
Formation:Gram
Stratigraphic resolution:group of beds
Stratigraphy comments: Tortonian-basal Pliocene, from the middle part of the typical Gram clay (20 m in the type locality section where it was divided into five faunal assemblage zones by Rasmussen (1966))
conformably overlies the Hodde Fm (Serravallian) and is unconformably overlain by Quaternary deposits (AH, based on Roth and Hoedemakers 2005)

The uppermost portion of the Gram Formation correlates with foraminiferal zone N17 (8.6–5.7 Ma [20, 54]) [208] and – within the clay pit –North Sea foraminiferal zone NSB 13b [209] and dinoflagellate zone D19b (8.7–7.5 Ma [54]), as judged from the last appearance of Spiniferites pseudofurcatus [208, 210]. Together, these dates imply a late Tortonian age (8.6–7.5 Ma). (Marx & Fordyce, 2015)

Gram Formation, Late Miocene [15]: based on the composition of associated mollusc fauna, the specimen can be accurately identified as belonging to layer 3 or 4 of the Gram Clay Formation [15,16] which are dated to mid-Torto- nian, ca. 9.9–8 mya according to a combined study of geomagnetic variation, dinoflagellates and malacofauna [16–18]. (Gol'din & Steeman, 2015).
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:micaceous poorly lithified silty claystone
Includes fossils?Y
Lithology description: SPECIFIC LITHOLOGY: Silty, dark, micaceous clay. LITHIFICATION: Poorly-lithified, on the basis of figured specimens. (AH)
Environment:marine indet.
Geology comments: The Gram Formation was deposited in a marine environment at a depth between 50 and 100 m, as indicated by the marine flora associated with terrestrial material, foraminifera and the marine fauna (Rasmussen, 1958, 1966; Laursen & Kristofferson, 1999; Dybkjær & Piasecki, 2010). Fine-grained storm beds similar to the extant coastal layers in the North Sea suggest a progradation of the shoreline (Rasmussen, 2005).
The fauna is typical of a coastal environment with 128 mollusc species and six decapod species (Fraaije, Hansen & Hansen, 2005; Schnetler, 2005). They are associated with shark remains, among others the predator Carcharocles megalodon (Bendix-Almgreen, 1983). Cetaceans are also represented by at least two baleen whale species, Uranocetus gramensis (Stee- man, 2009) and Tranatocetus argillarius (Roth, 1978; Gol’din & Steeman, 2015) and a delphinoid species (Hoch, 2004).
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body
Size of fossils:macrofossils,mesofossils
Disassociated major elements:some
Disassociated minor elements:some
Collection methods and comments
Collection excludes:some genera
Collection methods:surface (in situ),field collection
Reason for describing collection:taxonomic analysis
Collection method comments: This was originally reported in Bendix-Almgreen and Roth, 1976, but that reference could not be located in any citation search engines.
Taxonomic list comments:Whale specimens are housed in the Geological Museum, Copenhagen. Molluscs originally published in Rasmussen, 1976.
COVERAGE: Exhaustive for molluscs. NOMENCLATURE: Modern nomenclature, with species-resolution identifications. (AH)
Metadata
Also known as:Gram Clay Pit
Database number:34521
Authorizer:J. Alroy, M. Uhen Enterer:E. Leckey, M. Uhen
Modifier:M. Uhen Research group:marine invertebrate,vertebrate
Created:2003-09-04 09:46:34 Last modified:2023-10-17 12:14:32
Access level:the public Released:2003-09-04 09:46:34
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:

9111.5% 34400F. Roth. 1978. Mesocetus argillarius sp.n. (Cetacea, Mysticeti) from Upper Miocene of Denmark, with remarks on the lower jaw and echolocation system in whale phylogeny. Zoologica Scripta 7:63-79 [J. Alroy/E. Leckey/E. Leckey]

Secondary references:

5671ETE 1427J. L. Franzen. 1985. Exceptional preservation of Eocene vertebrates in the lake deposits of Grube Messel (West Germany). Philosophical Transactions of the the Royal Society, London, B 311:181-186 [A. Behrensmeyer/A. Behrensmeyer/M. Kosnik]
56238 P. Gol'din and M. E. Steeman. 2015. From problem taxa to problem solver: A new Miocene family, Tranatocetidae, brings perspective on baleen whale evolution. PLoS One 10(9):e0135500 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen/M. Uhen]
16759 E. Hoch. 2004. Cuvierian analysis, and determination of a delphinoid cetacean from the Late Miocene North Sea. Revue de Paleobiology 9(special):1-15 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]
54044 I. Koretsky, S. Rahmat, and N. Peters. 2014. Rare late Miocene seal taxa (Carnivora, Phocidae) from the North Sea Basin. Vestnik zoologii 48(5):419-432 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen/M. Uhen]
86117 O. Lambert, M. Bosselaers, and S. Louwye. 2023. Past beaked whale diversity in the North Sea: reappraisal through a new Miocene record and biostratigraphic analyses. Geologica Belgica 26(3-4):117-126 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]
55050 F. G. Marx and R. E. Fordyce. 2015. Baleen boom and bust: a synthesis of mysticete phylogeny, diversity and disparity. Royal Society Open Science 2:140434 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]
60356 B. Ramassamy. 2016. Description of a new long-snouted beaked whale from the Late Miocene of Denmark: evolution of suction feeding and sexual dimorphism in the Ziphiidae (Cetacea: Odontoceti). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 178:381-409 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]
70778 B. Ramassamy and H. Lauridsen. 2019. A new specimen of Ziphiidae (Cetacea, Odontoceti) from the late Miocene of Denmark with morphological evidence for suction feeding behaviour. Royal Society Open Science 6(10):191347 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen/M. Uhen]
31574 M. E. Steeman. 2009. A new baleen whale from the Late Miocene of Denmark and early mysticete hearing. Palaeontology 52(5):1169-1190 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]
12641 P. J. Van Beneden. 1880. Les mysticetes a courts fanons des sables des environs d'anvers. Bulletins de L'Academie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique 1880:11-27 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen/M. Uhen]