The first reported ceratopsid dinosaur from eastern North America (Owl Creek Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Mississippi, USA)
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biogeography, Paleontology
- Keywords
- Ceratopsia, biogeography, Laramidia, Appalachia, Ceratopsidae, Dinosauria, Owl Creek Formation, Cretaceous, dinosaur, Western Interior Seaway
- Copyright
- © 2017 Farke 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
- 2017. The first reported ceratopsid dinosaur from eastern North America (Owl Creek Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Mississippi, USA) PeerJ Preprints 5:e2746v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2746v2
Abstract
Ceratopsids (“horned dinosaurs”) are known from western North America and Asia, a distribution reflecting an inferred subaerial link between the two landmasses during the Late Cretaceous. However, this clade was previously unknown from eastern North America, presumably due to limited outcrop of the appropriate age and depositional environment as well as the separation of eastern and western North America by the Western Interior Seaway during much of the Late Cretaceous. A dentary tooth from the Owl Creek Formation (late Maastrichtian) of Union County, Mississippi, represents the first reported occurrence of Ceratopsidae from eastern North America. This tooth shows a combination of features typical of Ceratopsidae, including a double root and a prominent, blade-like carina. Based on the age of the fossil, we hypothesize that it is consistent with a dispersal of ceratopsids into eastern North America during the very latest Cretaceous, presumably after the two halves of North America were reunited following the retreat of the Western Interior Seaway.
Author Comment
We have updated the manuscript from the previous version in light of comments from peer reviewers solicited by PeerJ, personal communications from a number of colleagues, and public feedback on the PeerJ Preprints website. The primary areas of change include additional citations and discussion for the geological context of the fossil as well as more information on the paleogeography of the Western Interior Seaway. The revised version has been resubmitted for consideration by PeerJ.