The vertebrate-bearing Late Triassic Fleming Fjord Formation of central East Greenland revisited: stratigraphy, palaeoclimate and new palaeontological data

TY - CHAP

T1 - The vertebrate-bearing Late Triassic Fleming Fjord Formation of central East Greenland revisited

T2 - stratigraphy, palaeoclimate and new palaeontological data

AU - Clemmensen, Lars B

AU - Milán, Jesper

AU - Adolfssen, Jan S.

AU - Estrup, Eliza J.

AU - Frobøse, Nikolaj

AU - Klein, Nicole

AU - Mateus, Octávio

AU - Wings, Oliver

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - In Late Triassic (Norian-Rhaetian) times, the Jameson Land Basin lay at 408 N on the northern part of the supercontinent Pangaea. This position placed the basin in a transition zone between the relatively dry interior of the supercontinent and its more humid periphery. Sedimentation in the Jameson Land Basin took place in a lake-mudflat system and was controlled by orbitally forced variations in precipitation. Vertebrate fossils have consistently been found in these lake deposits (Fleming Fjord Formation), and include fishes, dinosaurs, amphibians, turtles, aetosaurs and pterosaurs. Furthermore, the fauna includes mammaliaform teeth and skeletal material. New vertebrate fossils were found during a joint vertebrate palaeontological and sedimentological expedition to Jameson Land in 2012. These new finds include phytosaurs, a second stem testudinatan specimen and new material of sauropodomorph dinosaurs, including osteologically immature individuals. Phytosaurs are a group of predators common in the Late Triassic, but previously unreported from Greenland. The finding includes well-preserved partial skeletons that show the occurrence of four individuals of three size classes. The new finds support a late Norian-early Rhaetian age for the Fleming Fjord Formation, and add new information on the palaeogeographical and palaeolatitudinal distribution of Late Triassic faunal provinces.

AB - In Late Triassic (Norian-Rhaetian) times, the Jameson Land Basin lay at 408 N on the northern part of the supercontinent Pangaea. This position placed the basin in a transition zone between the relatively dry interior of the supercontinent and its more humid periphery. Sedimentation in the Jameson Land Basin took place in a lake-mudflat system and was controlled by orbitally forced variations in precipitation. Vertebrate fossils have consistently been found in these lake deposits (Fleming Fjord Formation), and include fishes, dinosaurs, amphibians, turtles, aetosaurs and pterosaurs. Furthermore, the fauna includes mammaliaform teeth and skeletal material. New vertebrate fossils were found during a joint vertebrate palaeontological and sedimentological expedition to Jameson Land in 2012. These new finds include phytosaurs, a second stem testudinatan specimen and new material of sauropodomorph dinosaurs, including osteologically immature individuals. Phytosaurs are a group of predators common in the Late Triassic, but previously unreported from Greenland. The finding includes well-preserved partial skeletons that show the occurrence of four individuals of three size classes. The new finds support a late Norian-early Rhaetian age for the Fleming Fjord Formation, and add new information on the palaeogeographical and palaeolatitudinal distribution of Late Triassic faunal provinces.

U2 - 10.1144/SP434.3

DO - 10.1144/SP434.3

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-1-86239-748-4

T3 - Geological Society Special Publication

SP - 31

EP - 47

BT - Mesozoic biotas of Scandinavia and its arctic territories

A2 - Kear, B. P.

A2 - Lindgren, J.

A2 - Hurum, J. H.

A2 - Milàn , J.

A2 - Vajda, V.

PB - Geological Society

CY - London

ER -