Non-marine fish of the late Santonian Milk River Formation of Alberta, Canada – evidence from vertebrate microfossil localities

Authors

  • Don B Brinkman Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology
  • Andrew G. Neuman Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Box7500, Drumheller, AB, T0J 0Y0
  • Julien Divay Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Box 7500, Drumheller, AB, T0J 0Y0

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18435/B5PP41

Keywords:

Cretaceous, Milk River Formation, Fish, paleoecology,

Abstract

The diversity of fishes from the late Santonian Milk River Formation is investigated using a combined taxonomic/morphotype approach. Twenty-one taxa are present, including four elasmobranchs, seven basal actinopterygians, and of ten teleosts.

The Milk River fish assemblage is more similar to assemblages from southern Utah than it is to the late Campanian assemblage of Alberta in the presence of the elasmobranch Lonchidion and a member of amiid subfamily Vidalamiinae, the relatively high abundance of the ostariophysan teleost U3/BvD, and the absence of sturgeon, Holostean A, Holostean B, and Coriops. This similarity is hypothesized to be the result of a northern shift in the distribution of these taxa during times of high global temperature, resulting in the presence of a “southern” faunal assemblage in Alberta during the late Santonian.

In the relative abundance patterns of major groups of fish, the Milk River Formation assemblage is similar to late Campanian assemblages and different from those of late Maastrichtian in that amiids and lepsisoteids are of relatively low abundance. The abundance of acanthomorph teleosts in the Milk River Formation is similar to that of contemporaneous assemblages from Utah, which supports a pattern of increasing abundance of acanthomorphs from their first occurrence in non-marine vertebrate assemblages of the Western Interior in the Coniacian through to the end of the Cretaceous.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Don B Brinkman, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology

Director, Preservationa and Research

Andrew G. Neuman, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Box7500, Drumheller, AB, T0J 0Y0

Executive Director,

Royal Tyrrell Museum

Julien Divay, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Box 7500, Drumheller, AB, T0J 0Y0

Research Assistant

References

Agassiz, L. 1837. Recherches sur les poisson fossils. Neuchatel. 5 volumes. 1420 pp.

Applegate, S.P. 1972. Revision of the higher taxa of orectolobids. Journal of the Marine Biology Association of India 12:743-751.

Arratia, G. 1999. The monophyly of Teleostei and stem-group teleosts. Consensus and disagreements. Pp. 265-334 in G. Arratia and H.-P. Schultze (eds.). Mesozoic fishes 2 – systematics and fossil record. München, Germany: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil.

Arratia, G. 2001. The sister-group of Teleostei: Consensus and disagreements. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21:767-773.

Bannikov, A.F., and F. Bacchia. 2000. A remarkable clupeomorph fish (Pisces, Teleostei) from a new Upper Cretaceous marine locality in Lebanon. Senckenbergianna Lethaea 80:3-11.

Bardack, D. 1968. Belonostomus sp., the first holostean from the Austin Chalk (Cretaceous) of Texas. Journal of Paleontology 42:1307-1309.

Berg, L.S. 1936. The suborder Esocoidei (Pisces). Izvestia Biologicheskogo Nauchno- Issledovatel’skogo institute pri Permskom 10:385-391.

Berg, L.S., 1937. A classification of fish-like vertebrates. Bulletin de l’Académie des Sciences de l’URSS, 1937:1277-1280.

Berg, L.S. 1940. Classification of fishes, both Recent and fossil. Travaux de l’Institut Zoologique de l’Académie des Sciences de l’URSS 5:1-45.

Bleeker, P. 1859. Enumeratio speciorum piscium hucusque in Archipelago Indico observatarum, Acta Societatis Scientiarum Indo-Neêrlandae 6:1-276.

Bonaparte, C.L. 1838. Selachorum tabula analytica. Nouvelles Annales des Sciences Naturelles 2:195-214.

Brinkman, D. B. 1990. Paleoecology of the Judith River Formation (Campanian) of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada: Evidence from vertebrate microfossil localities. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 78:37-54.

Braman, D. 2002. Terrestrial palynomorphs of the upper Santonian –?lowest Campanian Milk River Formation. Palynology 25:57–107.

Brinkman, D.B. 2003. A review of nonmarine turtles from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 40:557-571.

Brinkman, D.B. 2008. The structure of Late Cretaceous (Late Campanian) non-marine aquatic communities: A guild analysis of two vertebrate microfossil localities in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. Pp. 33–60 in J.T. Sankey and S. Baszio (eds.). Vertebrate microfossil assemblages, their role in Paleoecology and Paleobiogeography. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Brinkman, D.B., and A.G. Neuman. 2002. Teleost centra from uppermost Judith River Group (Dinosaur Park Formation, Campanian) of Alberta, Canada. Journal of Paleontology 76:138–155.

Brinkman, D.B., D.R. Braman, A.G. Neuman, P.E. Ralrick, and T. Sato, 2005. A vertebrate assemblage from marine shales of the Lethbridge Coal Zone. Pp. 486-500 in: P.J. Currie and E.B. Kopplelhus (eds.). Dinosaur Provincial Park, A spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.

Brinkman, D.B., M.G. Newbrey, A.G. Neuman, and J.G. Eaton. 2013. Freshwater Osteichthyes from the Cenomanian to late Campanian of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Pp. 195-236 in A.L. Titus and M.A. Lowen (eds.). At the Top of the Grand Staircase: The Late Cretaceous of Southern Utah. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Brinkman, D.B., M.G. Newbrey, and A.G. Neuman. 2014. Diversity and paleoecology of actinopterygian fish from vertebrate microfossil localities of the Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation of Montana. Pp. 247-270 in G.P. Wilson, W.A. Clemens, J.R. Horner, and J.H. Hartman (eds.). Through the End of the Cretaceous in the Type Locality of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and Adjacent Areas. Geological Society of America Special Paper 503.

Bryant, L. 1987. A new genus and species of Amiidae (Holostei; Osteichthyes) from the Late Cretaceous of North America, with comments on the phylogeny of the Amiidae. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 7:349–361.

Cappeta, H. 1980. Les Sélaciens du Crétacé superieur du Liban. II. Batoïdes. Palaeontographica Abt. A 168:69-148.

Case, G.R. 1978. A new selachian fauna from the late Campanian of Wyoming (Teapot Sandstome Member, Mesaverde Formation, Big Horn Basin). Palaeontographica Abteilung A 197:1-37.

Cook, T.D., M.G. Newbrey, D.B. Brinkman, and J.I. Kirkland. 2014. Euselachians from the freshwater deposits of the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. Pp. 229-246 in G.P. Wilson, W.A. Clemens, J.R. Horner, and J.H. Hartman (eds.). Through the End of the Cretaceous in the Type Locality of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and Adjacent Areas: Geological Society of America Special Paper 503.

Cuvier, G. 1817. Le Règne Animal Distribué d’aprés son Organisation Pour Serview de Base á L’histoire Naturelles des Animaus et D’introduction á L’anatomie Comparee. Les Reptiles, les Poissons, les Mollusques et les Annélides (1 ed.); P.F. Paris: Didot le jeune.

Cuvier, G. 1825. Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles, où l'on rétablit les caractères de plusieurs animaux dont les révolutions du globe ont détruit les espèces. 3rd ème éd. Paris.

Cuvier, G., and A. Valenciennes. 1846. Histoire Naturelle Des Poissons, Volume 19: Société Géologique de France, Strasbourg [1969 facsimile reprint; A. Asher and Company, Amsterdam].

Divay, J. D. 2015. Cenozoic ichthyofaunas of the North American western interior, and palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. PhD dissertation, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, 523 pp.

Divay, J.D., and A.M. Murray, 2016. An early Eocene fish fauna from the Bitter Creek area of the Wasatch Formation of southwestern Wyoming, U.S.A. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e1196211:1-19.

Estes, R. 1964. Fossil vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous Lance Formation, Eastern Wyoming. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 49:1-187.

Fink, S.V., and W.L. Fink. 1996. Interrelationships of Ostariophysan fishes (Teleostei). Pp. 209-250 in M.L.J. Stiassny, L.R. Parenti, and G.D. Johnson, (eds.). Interrelationships of Fishes. San Diego, California: Academic Press.

Forsskål, P. 1775. Descriptiones animalium avium, amphibiorum, piscium, insectorum, vermium; quae in itinere orientali observavit; Post mortem auctoris edidit Carsten Niebuhr. Hauniae. Descriptiones animalium quae in itinere ad Maris Australis terras per annos, 1-20 + i-xxxiv + 1-164, map.

Fowler, H.W.1941. Contributions to the biology of the Phillippine archipelago and adjacent regions. The fishes of the groups Elasmobranchii, Holocephali, Isospondyli, and Ostariophysi obtained by the United States Bureau of Fisheries Steamer “Albatross” in 1907 to 1910, chiefly in Philippine Islands and adjacent Seas. Bulletin of the United States National Museum 13:1–879.

Garstang, W. 1931. The phyletic classification of Teleostei. Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. Scientific Section 2:240-260.

Gill, T.C. 1895. Notes on the genus Cephaleutherus of Rafinesque, and other rays with aberrant pectoral fins (Propterygia and Hieroptera). Proceedings of the United States National Museum 18:195–198.

Grande, L. 1985. Recent and fossil clupeomorph fishes with materials for revision of the subgroups of clupeiods. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 131:231-272.

Grande, L. 2010. An empirical synthetic pattern study of gars (Lepisosteiformes) and closely related species, based mostly on skeletal Anataomy. The resurrection of Holostei. American Society of Ichthyologists and herpetologists Special Publication 6:1-871.

Grande L. and T.M. Cavender. 1991. Description and phylogenetic reassessment of the monotypic †Ostariostomidae (Teleostei). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 11:405-416.

Grande, L., and W.E. Bemis. 1998, A comprehensive phylogenetic study of amiid fishes (Amiidae) based on comparative skeletal anatomy. An empirical search for interconnected patterns of Natural History. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Memoir 4:1-690

Grande, L., F. Jin, Y. Yabumoto, and W.E. Bemis. 2002. †Protopsephurus liui, a well-preserved primitive paddlefish (Acipenseriformes: Polyodontidae) from the Early Cretaceous of China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22:209-237.

Grayson, D. K., 1984. Quantitative Zooarchaoology, Topics in the Analysis of Archaeological Faunas. New York, N.Y., Academic Press.

Greenwood, P.H., D.E. Rosen, S.H. Weitzman, and G.S. Myers. 1966, Phyletic studies of teleostean fishes, with a provisional classification of living forms. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 131:339–455.

Hay, O.P. 1902. Bibliography and catalogue of the fossil Vertebrata of North America. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 179:1-868.

Hay, O.P. 1929. Second bibliography and catalogue of the fossil Vertebrata of North America. Publications of the Carnegie Institute of Washington 390:1-2003.

Herman, J. 1977. Additions to the Eocene fish fauna of Belgium: 3, Revision of the Orectolobiformes. Tertiary Research 1:127-138.

Huxley, T.H. 1880. On the application of laws of evolution to the arrangement of the Vertebrata and more particularly of the Mammalia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1880:649-662.

Jenkyns, H. C., A. Forester, S. Schouten, and J.S.S. Damste. 2004. High temperatures in the Late Cretaceous Arctic Ocean. Nature 432:888-892.

Johnson, G. D., and C. Patterson. 1996. Relationships of Lower Euteleostean Fishes. Pp. 251-332 in M.L J. Stiassny, L.R. Parenti, and G.D. Johnson (eds.). Interrelationships of Fishes. New York: Academic Press.

Jordan, D.S., and H.W. Fowler. 1903. A review of the elasmobranchiate fishes of Japan. Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum 26: 593-674.

Kirkland, J.I., J.G., Eaton, and D.B. Brinkman. 2013. Elasmobranchs from Upper Cretaceous freshwater facies in Southern Utah. Pp. 153-194 in A.L. Titus and M.A. Lowen (eds.). At the Top of the Grand Staircase: The Late Cretaceous of Southern Utah. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Klein, E. E. 1885. Beiträge zur Bildung des Schadels der Knochenfische. II. Jahreshefte des Vereins für vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg 41:107–261.

Lambe, L.M. 1902. New genera and species from the Belly River series (mid-Cretaceous). Geological Survey of Canada, Contributions to Canadian Palaeontology 2:23–81.

Larson, D.W. 2010. The occurrences of vertebrate fossils in the Deadhorse Coulee Member of the Milk River Formation and their implications for provincialism and evolution in the Santonian (Late Cretaceous) of North America. (Masters Thesis). University of Alberta. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10048/1312

Leanza, H., and A. Zeiss. 1990. Upper Jurassic lithographic limestones from Argentina (Neuquén Basin): stratigraphy and fossils. Facies 22:169-186.

Maisey, J.G. 1975. The interrelationships of phalacanthous selachians. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte 1975: 553-567.

McAllister, D.E. 1968. The evolution of branchiostegals and associated opercular, gular, and hyoid bones, and the classification of teleostome fishes, living and fossil. National Museum of Canada Bulletin 221:1-239.

McAlpine, A. 1947. Palaeopsephurus wilsoni, a new polyodontid fish from the Upper Cretaceous of Montana, with a discussion of allied fishes, living and fossil. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology University of Michigan 6:167–234.

Meyer, R., 1994. Shoreface to coastal-plain estuarine deposition in the Milk River Formation, southern Alberta, Canada. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Field Trip Guidebook, September 9-11, 1994, Calgary Alberta, 52 p.

Müller, J. 1844. Ueber den Bau und die Grenzen der Ganoiden und über das natürliche System der Fische. Bericht über die zur Bekanntmachung geeigneten Verhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1846:117-216. [An 1846 English translation of this paper, translated by J. W. Griffith, can be found in Scientific Memoirs 4(16):499-558.]

Murray, A.M., M.G. Newbrey, A.G. Neuman, and D.B. Brinkman. 2016. New articulated osteoglossomorph from Late Cretaceous freshwater deposits (Maastrichtian, Scollard Formation) of Alberta, Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2016.1120737

Nelson, J.S., 1994. Fishes of the World, third ed. John Wiley and Sons, Hobroken, New Jersey.

Nelson, J.S., T.C. Grande, and M.V.H. Wilson. 2016. Fishes of the World, Fifth ed. John Wiley and Sons, Hobroken, New Jersey.

Neuman, A.G., and D.B. Brinkman. 2005. Fishes of the fluvial beds. Pp. 167–185 in P.J. Currie and E.B. Kopplelhus (eds.). Dinosaur Provincial Park, A Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Newbrey, M.G., A.M. Murray, M.V.H. Wilson, D B. Brinkman, and A.G. Neuman. 2009. Seventy-five-million-year-old tropical tetra-like fish from Canada tracks Cretaceous global warming. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B 276:3829-3833.

Newbrey, M., A.M. Murray, D. B. Brinkman, M.V.H. Wilson, and A.G. Neuman. 2010. A new articulated freshwater fish (Clupeomorpha, Ellimmichthyiformes) from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Maastrichtian, of Alberta, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 47:1183-1196.

Nicholson, H.A., and R. Lydekker. 1889. A manual of Palaeontology, second edition. Edinburgh and London, W. Blackwood and Sons.

Owen, R. 1846. Lectures on the comparative anatomy and physiology of the vertebrate animals, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1844 and 1846. Part 1. Fishes. London, England: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.

Payenberg, T.H.D., D.R. Braman, D.W. Davis, and A.D. Miall. 2003. Litho- and chronostratigraphic relationships of the Santonian–Campanian Milk River Formation in southern Alberta and Eagle Formation in Montana utilising stratigraphy, U–Pb geochronology, and palynology. Canadian Journal of Earth Science 39:1553–1577.

Payenberg, T.H.D., D.R. Braman, and A.D. Miall. 2002. Litho- and chronostratigraphic relationships of the Santonian–Campanian Milk River Formation in southern Alberta and Eagle Formation in Montana utilising stratigraphy, U–Pb geochronology, and palynology. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology 51:155-176.

Patterson, C., and D.E. Rosen. 1977. A review of the ichthyodectiform and other Mesozoic teleost fishes, and the theory and practice of classifying fossils. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 158:81-172.

Regan, C.T. 1923. The skeleton of Lepidosteus, with remarks on the origin and evolution of the lower neopterygian fishes. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1923:445-461.

Rogers, R.R., C.C. Swisher III, and J.H. Horner. 1993. 40Ar/39Ar age and correlation of the nonmarine Two Medicine Formation (Upper Cretaceous), northwestern Montana, U.S.A. Canadian Journal of Earth Science 30, 1066-1075.

Rosen, D. E. 1973. Interrelationships of higher euteleostean fishes. Pp. 397-513 in P. H. Greenwood, R. S. Miles, and C. Patterson (eds.). Interrelationships of fishes. London: Academic Press.

Rosen, D.E., and P.H. Greenwood. 1970. Origin of the Weberian apparatus and the relationships of the ostariophysan and gonorhynchiform fishes. American Museum Novitates 2428:1-5.

Rosen, D.E., P.L. Forey, B.G. Gardiner, and C. Patterson. 1981. Lungfishes, tetrapods, paleontology and plesiomorphy. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 167:159-276.

Sagemehl, M. 1885. Beiträge zur vergleichenden Anotomie der Fische. III. Das Cranium der Characiniden nebst allgemeinen Bemerkungen über die mit einen Weber’schen Apparat versehenen Physostomenfamilien. Gegenbauers Morphologisches Jahrbuch 10:1-119.

Sampson, S.D., M.A. Loewen, A.A, Farke, E.M. Roberts, C.A. Forster, J.A. Smith, and A.L. Titus. 2010. New horned dinosaurs from Utah provide evidence for intracontinental dinosaur endemism. PLoS One 5(9):.e12292.

Schaeffer, B. 1949. A teleost from the Livingston Fomation of Montana. American Museum Novitates 1427:1-16.

Stiassny, M.L.J. 1986. The limits and relationships of the acanthomorph teleosts. Journal of Zoology 1(2):411-460.

Sweetman, S. 2013. Albuliform fish remains (Teleostei, Elopomorpha) from the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian) Wadhurst Clay Formation of the Wealden Supergroup of southeast England. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33:1239-1243.

Taverne, L. 1979. Ostéologie, phylogénèse et systématique des Téléostéens fossiles et actuels du super-ordre des osteoglossomorphes. Troisième partie. Évolution des structures ostéologiques et conclusions générales relatives à la phylogénèse et à la systématique du super-order. Mémoires de la Classe des Sciences, Académie Royale de Belgique 43:1-168.

Underwood, C.J., and S.L. Cumbaa. 2010. Chondrichthyans from a Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous) bonebed, Saskatchewan, Canada. Palaeontology 53:903-944.

Upchurch, G.R., Jr., and Wolfe, J.A. 1993. Cretaceous vegetation of the western interior and adjacent regions of North America. Geological Association of Canada, Special Paper 39:243–281

Vavrek, M., A.M. Murray, and P.R. Bell. 2014. An early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) sturgeon (Acipenseriformes) from the Dunvegan Formation, northwestern Alberta, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 51:677–681.

Vernygora, O. and A.M. Murray, 2016. A new species of Armigatus (Clupeomorpha, Ellimmichthyiformes) from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco, and its phylogenetic relationships. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 36:e1031342 (9 pages).

Vullo, R., E. Bernárdez, and A.D. Buscalioni. 2009. Vertebrates from the middle?–late Cenomanian La Cabaña Formation (Asturias, northern Spain): Palaeoenvironmental and palaeobiogeographic implications. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 276:120–129.

Whetstone, K.N. 1978. Belonostomus sp. (Teleostei, Aspidorhynchidae) from the Upper Cretaceous Tombigbee Sand of Alabama. The University of Kansas Paleontological Contibutions, Paper 89:17-19.

Wilson, M.V.H., D.B. Brinkman, and A.G. Neuman. 1992. Cretaceous Esocoidea (Teleostei): early radiation of the pikes in North American fresh waters. Journal of Paleontology 66:839–846.

Zangerl, R. 1981. Chondrichthyes 1: Paleozoic Elasmobranchii. Pp 1-115 in H.P. Schultze (ed.). Handbook of Paleoichthyology, 3A. New York, Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag.

Downloads

Published

2017-04-10

How to Cite

Brinkman, D. B., Neuman, A. G., & Divay, J. (2017). Non-marine fish of the late Santonian Milk River Formation of Alberta, Canada – evidence from vertebrate microfossil localities. Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology, 3. https://doi.org/10.18435/B5PP41