Eulert Ranch, Saline River valley: Middle Turonian, Kansas
collected by Robert Jennrich, Frank Jennrich, George F. Sternberg, and one other 1950
List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
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Reptilia
- Plesiosauria
- Pliosauridae
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Brachauchenius lucasi
Williston 1903
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1 individual | |||||||||
| FHSM VP-321 (skull and mandibles) | ||||||||||
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= Pliosauridae informal FHSM VP-321
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Ketchum and Benson 2010 | |||||||||
| Used as a distinct OTU and found to be phylogenetically distant from B. lucasi | ||||||||||
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= Megacephalosaurus eulerti n. gen., n. sp.
Schumacher et al. 2013
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Schumacher et al. 2013 | |||||||||
| see common names | ||||||||||
Geography
| Country: | United States | State/province: | Kansas | County: | Russell County |
| Coordinates: | 39.0° North, 99.0° West (view map) | ||||
| Paleocoordinates: | 39.7° North, 64.1° West | ||||
| Basis of coordinate: | based on nearby landmark | ||||
| Geographic resolution: | small collection |
Time
| Period: | Cretaceous | Epoch: | Late/Upper Cretaceous |
| Stage: | Turonian | 10 m.y. bin: | Cretaceous 6 |
| Key time interval: | Middle Turonian | Ammonoid zone: | Collignoniceras woollgari |
| Age range of interval: | 93.90000 - 89.80000 m.y. ago |
Stratigraphy
| Geological group: | Colorado | Formation: | Carlile Shale | Member: | Fairport |
| Stratigraphic resolution: | bed | ||||
| Stratigraphy comments: "Middle of the Fairport Chalk Member, Carlile Shale, 12 m above the Fencepost Limestone bed, early middle Turonian (Collignoniceras woollgari Zone)" (Schumacher et al. 2013, p. 617).
"Carpenter (1996) listed the specimen as most likely from the Jetmore or Pfeifer members of the Greenhorn Limestone. However, in November 2003, Robert Jennrich led members of the Sternberg Museum to the precise location where the specimen had been excavated more than 50 years earlier. The horizon of occurence is in the middle of the Fairport Chalk, approximately 12 m above the Fencepost Limestone bed of the Greenhorn Limestone. The upper of two thin, marly chalk beds that form Hattin's (1962) marker unit 9 lies 1 metre below the site. An external mold of Collignoniceras woollgari was collected in a gritty, resistant marl layer (marker unit 8 of Hattin, 1962) roughly 2.5 meters below the site. Large valve fragments of Inoceramus cuvieri bearing a diverse assemblage of macro-invertebrate epizoans (Hattin and Hirt, 1991) appear abundant about 2 metres above the site. The confirmed age of the specimen is early Middle Turonian" (Schumacher & Everhart 2005, p. 39). | |||||
Lithology and environment
| Primary lithology: | not reported |
| Environment: | marine indet. |
Taphonomy
| Modes of preservation: | body |
| Size of fossils: | macrofossils |
| Temporal resolution: | snapshot |
Collection methods and comments
| Collection excludes: | some macrofossils | ||
| Collection methods: | selective quarrying | ||
| Reason for describing collection: | taxonomic analysis | ||
| Collectors: | Robert Jennrich, Frank Jennrich, George F. Sternberg, and one other | Collection dates: | October 1950 |
| Collection method comments: FHSM, Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas, U.S.A.
FHSM VP-321 was discovered by two brothers, Frank and Robert Jennrich, while prospecting for shark teeth near the town of Fairport in northwestern Russell County, Kansas. In the fall of 1950, the brothers led G. F. Sternberg to the discovery, and along with ranch hand Jim Rouse, the four men unearthed the skull in late October of that year (Fig. 5). Sternberg’s accession records state that the specimen is “Upper Cretaceous, likely from the Greenhorn or Graneros beds Benton horizon. The original rock was a dark shale with shark teeth, several species, fish including Portheus molussus [sic]. The specimen was graciously donated to the museum by the landowner Otto C. Eulert.” An archival letter to Eulert (November 2, 1950) indicates that Sternberg originally presumed the specimen to be a mosasaur, although museum accession records and local news coverage (Anonymous, 1951) show that he quickly amended the identification to plesiosaur. After preparing the specimen and conferring with colleagues at the 1950 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico (archival letter from S. P. Welles to Sternberg, January, 1951), Sternberg labeled the specimen Brachauchenius lucasi | |||
Metadata
| Also known as: | FHSM VP-321, Fairpoty | ||
| Database number: | 117804 | ||
| Authorizer: | R. Benson | Enterer: | R. Benson |
| Modifier: | M. Carrano | Research group: | vertebrate |
| Created: | 2011-09-27 00:13:19 | Last modified: | 2021-07-02 13:59:34 |
| Access level: | the public | Released: | 2011-09-27 00:13:19 |
| Creative Commons license: | CC BY | ||
Reference information
Primary reference:
| 34117. | K. Carpenter. 1996. A review of short-necked plesiosaurs of the Western Interior, North America. Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie, Abhandlungen 201(2):259-287 [M. Carrano/H. Street] |
Secondary references:
| 38105 | H. F. Ketchum and R. B. J. Benson. 2010. Global interrelationships of Plesiosauria (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) and the pivotal role of taxon sampling in determining the outcome of phylogenetic analyses. Biological Reviews 85:361-392 [R. Benson/R. Benson] | |
| 46716 | B. A. Schumacher, K. Carpenter, and M. J. Everhart. 2013. A new Cretaceous pliosaurid (Reptilia, Plesiosauria) from the Carlile Shale (Middle Turonian) of Russell County, Kansas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33(3):613-628 [R. Benson/R. Benson/M. Carrano] | |
| 37870 | B. A. Schumacher and M. J. Everhart. 2005. A stratigraphic and taxonomic review of plesiosaurs from the old "Fort Benton Group" of central Kansas: a new assessment of old records. Paludicola 5(2):33-54 [R. Benson/R. Benson/R. Butler] |