Mesozoic Biotas of Scandinavia and its Arctic Territories

Scandinavia and its Arctic territories of Svalbard and Greenland represent geographical regions with a long history of Mesozoic palaeontology. However, the last few decades have witnessed a surge of new discoveries. Especially famous are the Triassic and Late Jurassic Lagerstätten of East Greenland and Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago, together with the Late Cretaceous strata of southern Sweden and the UNESCO World Heritage locality at Stevns Klint in Denmark. The latter records one of the most complete terminal Mesozoic rock successions known globally. Collectively, these deposits encompass the spectrum of Mesozoic biotic evolution, including the explosive radiation of marine faunas after the Permian–Triassic extinction, seminal specialization of amniotes for life in the sea, Late Triassic–Jurassic domination of the land by dinosaurs and the Cretaceous development of modern terrestrial floras and marine ecosystems. This volume, authored by leading experts in the field, encapsulates key aspects of the latest research and will provide a benchmark for future investigations into the Scandinavian Mesozoic world.
Late Cretaceous dinosaurian remains from the Kristianstad Basin of southern Sweden
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Published:January 01, 2016
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CiteCitation
Stephen F. Poropat, Elisabeth Einarsson, Johan Lindgren, Mohamad Bazzi, Clarence Lagerstam, Benjamin P. Kear, 2016. "Late Cretaceous dinosaurian remains from the Kristianstad Basin of southern Sweden", Mesozoic Biotas of Scandinavia and its Arctic Territories, B. P. Kear, J. Lindgren, J. H. Hurum, J. Milàn, V. Vajda
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Abstract
Mesozoic dinosaur fossils are exceptionally rare in Scandinavia. The Swedish record is typically depauperate, with the Kristianstad Basin of Skåne (Scania) yielding all of the known fossils from Swedish Cretaceous strata. Although highly fragmentary, these body remnants are important because they provide evidence of a relatively diverse fauna, including previously recognized hesperornithiform birds and leptoceratopsid ceratopsians, as well as indeterminate ornithopods that are confirmed here for the first time. In this paper, we describe three phalanges (from Åsen) and an incomplete right tibia (from Ugnsmunnarna) from the Kristianstad Basin. One of the phalanges appears to pertain to a leptoceratopsid ceratopsian, providing further evidence of these small ornithischians in the Cretaceous sediments of Sweden. The other two phalanges are interpreted as deriving from small ornithopods similar to Thescelosaurus and Parksosaurus. The tibia appears to represent the first evidence of a non-avian theropod dinosaur in the Cretaceous of Sweden, with a previous report of theropod remains based on fish teeth having been corrected by other authors. The remains described herein provide important additions to the enigmatic dinosaurian fauna that inhabited the Fennoscandian archipelago during the latest Cretaceous.
- Archosauria
- bones
- Ceratopsia
- Chordata
- Cretaceous
- Diapsida
- dinosaurs
- Europe
- faunal studies
- fossil localities
- fossils
- Kristianstad Sweden
- Mesozoic
- morphology
- Ornithischia
- Ornithopoda
- Reptilia
- Saurischia
- Scandinavia
- Skane Sweden
- species diversity
- Sweden
- taxonomy
- Tetrapoda
- Theropoda
- Upper Cretaceous
- Vertebrata
- Western Europe
- Neoceratopsia
- Kristianstad Basin
- Asen Sweden
- Leptoceratopsidae
- Ivo Island
- Ullstorp Sweden
- Ugnsmunnarna Sweden