A new Lower Triassic ichthyopterygian assemblage from Fossil Hill, Nevada

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1 Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
2 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, United States
3 n/a, Orangevale, California, United States
4 Natural Resources Canada - Geological Survey of Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.1447v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Evolutionary Studies, Paleontology
Keywords
Triassic, Ichthyosaur, Ichthyopterygia, Marine Reptile, Nevada
Copyright
© 2015 Kelley et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Kelley NP, Motani R, Embree P, Orchard MJ. 2015. A new Lower Triassic ichthyopterygian assemblage from Fossil Hill, Nevada. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e1447v1

Abstract

We report a new ichthyopterygian assemblage from Lower Triassic horizons of the Prida Formation at Fossil Hill in central Nevada. Although fragmentary, the specimens collected so far document a diverse fauna. One partial jaw exhibits isodont dentition with blunt tipped, mesiodistally compressed crowns and striated enamel. These features are shared with the Early Triassic genus Utatsusaurus known from coeval deposits in Japan and British Columbia. An additional specimen exhibits a different dentition characterized by relatively small, rounded posterior teeth resembling other Early Triassic ichthyopterygians particularly Grippia. This Nevada assemblage marks a southward latitudinal extension for Early Triassic ichthyopterygians along the eastern margin of Panthalassa and indicates repeated circum-oceanic dispersal events in Early Triassic ichthyopterygians.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

Summary of conodont results

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.1447v1/supp-1