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.
First evidence of the Cretaceous decapod crustacean Protocallianassa from Sweden
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Published:January 01, 2016
Abstract
An assemblage of the burrowing ghost shrimp, Protocallianassa faujasi, is described, providing the first evidence of this decapod species from Sweden. The fossils occur in successions of the informal earliest late Campanian Belemnellocamax balsvikensis zone at Åsen and the latest early Campanian B. mammillatus zone at Ivö Klack, both in the Kristianstad Basin of NE Skåne. Numerous, heavily calcified chelipeds were found within a restricted bed at Åsen that was rich in carbonate-cemented nodules. Based on the burrowing lifestyle of modern mud shrimps, we interpret these nodules as infilled burrow chambers. The low abundance of molluscs within the Protocallianassa beds is also consistent with analogous extant communities, indicating that a similar ecologically exclusive relationship ruled within the Late Cretaceous shallow-marine ecosystems.
- anatomy
- Arthropoda
- assemblages
- biozones
- burrows
- Campanian
- Cretaceous
- Crustacea
- Europe
- first occurrence
- ichnofossils
- Invertebrata
- Kristianstad Sweden
- Malacostraca
- Mandibulata
- measurement
- Mesozoic
- paleoecology
- Scandinavia
- Skane Sweden
- Sweden
- taxonomy
- Upper Cretaceous
- Western Europe
- Axiidae
- Callianassidae
- Protocallianassa
- Asen Sweden
- Protocallianassa faujasi
- Ivo Klack Sweden
- chelae
- chelipeds
- Protocallianassinae