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A new polycotylid plesiosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Upper Cretaceous Bearpaw Formation in Saskatchewan, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Tamaki Sato
Tamaki Sato*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, PO Box 7500, Drumheller, Alberta T0J 0Y0, Canada
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Abstract

A new species of polycotylid, Dolichorhynchops herschelensis, is described based on a well-preserved skeleton from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) Bearpaw Formation of Herschel, Saskatchewan. Its small size as an adult, the sharp rise in front of the parietal crest, and the straight ilium with narrow dorsal end are diagnostic features of this taxon. This is the first polycotylid plesiosaur described from the Bearpaw Formation, deposited during the critical period when polycotylids were disappearing from the Western Interior of North America.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 79 , Issue 5 , September 2005 , pp. 969 - 980
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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