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Vertebrate Remains Are Relatively Well Known in Late Jurassic Deposits of Western Cuba. the Fossil Specimens That Have Been Coll

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Vertebrate Remains Are Relatively Well Known in Late Jurassic Deposits of Western Cuba. the Fossil Specimens That Have Been Coll Paleontología Mexicana, 3 (65): 24-39 (versión impresa), 4: 24-39 (versión electrónica) Catalogue of late jurassiC VerteBrate (pisCes, reptilian) speCiMens froM western CuBa Manuel Iturralde-Vinent ¹, *, Yasmani Ceballos Izquierdo ² A BSTRACT Vertebrate remains are relatively well known in Late Jurassic deposits of western Cuba. The fossil specimens that have been collected so far are dispersed in museum collections around the world and some have been lost throughout the years. A reas- sessment of the fossil material stored in some of these museums’ collections has generated new data about the fossil-bearing lo- calities and greatly increased the number of formally identified specimens. The identified bone elements and taxa suggest a high vertebrate diversity dominated by actinopterygians and reptiles, including: long-necked plesiosaurs, pliosaurs, metriorhynchid crocodilians, pleurodiran turtles, ichthyosaurs, pterosaurs, and sauropod dinosaurs. This assemblage is commonly associated with unidentified remains of terrestrial plants and rare microor- ganisms, as well as numerous marine invertebrates such as am- monites, belemnites, pelecypods, brachiopods, and ostracods. This fossil assemblage is particularly valuable because it includes the most complete marine reptile record of a chronostratigraphic interval, which is poor in vertebrate remains elsewhere. In this contribution, the current status of the available vertebrate fossil specimens from the Late Jurassic of western Cuba is provided, along with a brief description of the fossil materials. Key words: Late Jurassic, Oxfordian, dinosaur, marine reptiles, fish, western Cuba. I NTRODUCTION Since the early 20th century, different groups of collectors have discovered 1 Retired curator, Museo a relatively rich and diverse vertebrate assemblage in the Late Jurassic stra- Nacional de Historia Natural, ta of western Cuba, which has been only partially investigated (Brown and Havana, Cuba. O’Connell, 1922; De la Torre y Callejas, 1949; De la Torre y Madrazo and 2 Calle 40, #2702, e/27 y 29, Cuervo, 1939; De la Torre y Madrazo and Rojas, 1949; Gasparini and Iturral- Madruga, Mayabeque, Cuba. de-Vinent, 2006, and references therein; Gregory, 1923; Iturralde-Vinent and * [email protected] Norell, 1996; Judoley and Furrazola-Bermúdez, 1965). CaTALOGUE OF LaTE JURASSIC VERTeBRATe The fossil material was recovered from lenticu- the planet, and those which have been collected are lar calcareous concretions within the Oxfordian Jagua often fragmentary (Gasparini and Iturralde-Vinent, and Francisco Formations, and to a lesser extent from 2006; Young, 2013). Furthermore, the presence of well-bedded limestones of the Tithonian Guasasa and marine forms that are closely related phylogenetically Artemisa Formations. These stratigraphic units crop in Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous American and Euro- out at several localities in the Guaniguanico moun- pean deposits, underline the outstanding position of tains of the Pinar del Rio province of western Cuba. the Oxfordian early Caribbean taxa of western Cuba. In the Oxfordian fossil-bearing strata more However, only in the last decade, taxonomic, biogeo- than seventy rather well-preserved reptile specimens graphic and paleogeographic studies have been accom- have been collected, and more than five hundred fish plished (Gasparini and Iturralde-Vinent, 2006; Iturral- remains, some of which have been assigned to fam- de-Vinent, 2004; Iturralde-Vinent and Norell, 1996; ily, genus, or species. Reptiles within this fossil assem- Pszczólkowski, 1978, 1999; Wierzbowski, 1976). blage include two rhamphorhynchid pterosaur taxa Late Jurassic vertebrate specimens of Cuba are (Nesodactylus hesperius, Cacibupteryx caribensis), a dispersed in museum collections in Cuba, Puerto Rico, cryptoclidid plesiosauroid taxon (Vinialesaurus car- the United States of America and Great Britain, but oli), a medium-sized pliosauroid (Gallardosaurus unfortunately, some are known to have been lost (Table iturraldei), indeterminate rhacheosaurin crocodilians, I). Most of the Late Jurassic fish and reptile fossil-bear- a fragmentary specimen of pleurodiran turtle (Cari- ing localities in Cuba were poorly known prior to the bemys oxfordiensis), several unidentified ichthyosaurs work of Iturralde-Vinent and Norell (1996), but since including ophthalmosaurian elements, and at least one the publication of this synoptic catalog, new localities camarasaurid sauropod bone (Gasparini and Iturral- and fossil materials have been discovered, and new de-Vinent, 2006; Young, 2013). taxa named and/or revisited. In Cuba, the Late Juras- Identifiable remains of bony fish (actinopteryg- sic fish-bearing localities were not catalogued before ians) are also common including the following taxa: and the majority of existing specimens are awaiting a Lepidotes gloriae, Gyrodus macrophthalmus cuben- formal identification. sis, Caturus deani, Sauropsis woodwardi, Eugnathides The main objective of this paper is to provide an browni, Leptolepis euspondylus, Luisichthys vinal- assessment of the current status of the available fossil esensis, Aspidorhynchus arawaki, Pholidophorus sp., vertebrate specimens of the Late Jurassic of western Hypsocormus leedsi, which are sometimes fossilized in Cuba, and present an updated catalog including previ- three dimensions (Arratia and Schultze, 1985; Greg- ously unpublished specimens and localities. ory, 1923; White, 1942; and others). Disarticulated bones of fish (provisionally identified asHypsocormus sp.), and unidentified plesiosaur remains have been Previous Work unearthed from Tithonian strata (Furrazola-Bermú- Alexander von Humboldt inferred the existence of dez in Gasparini and Iturralde-Vinent, 2006; Judoley Jurassic rocks in the western part of the island at the and Furrazola-Bermúdez, 1965; Sánchez-Roig, 1920). beginning of the 19th century, but he did not provide Fragments of tree trunks, branches, and detrital veg- paleontological evidence. Actually, the first to prove the etal material, and an assortment of marine inverte- occurrence of Jurassic strata was the Spanish mining brates including ammonites, belemnites, pelecypods, engineer Manuel Fernández de Castro, who repor- brachiopods, and ostracods, are associated with fish ted Jurassic ammonites in the Pinar del Río province and reptiles in the mid-to early-Late Oxfordian stra- ta (Gasparini and Iturralde-Vinent, 2006; Iturralde- in 1881. However, these fossils were neither illustra- Vinent and Norell, 1996; Pszczólkowski, 1978; Wier- ted nor identified. The first author to properly identify zbowski, 1976). rocks of the Jurassic period was the outstanding Cuban The Cuban Late Jurassic vertebrate assemblage naturalist Don Carlos de la Torre y Huerta (De la Torre is important not only for its high taxonomic diver- y Huerta, 1909, 1910a, 1910b), who reported the sity and relative abundance, but it also includes the occurrence of Jurassic fossils in Pinar del Río. Between most complete marine reptile record for the mid-to 1911 and 1919, Barnum Brown (American Museum of early-Late Oxfordian as yet discovered (Gasparini Natural History) visited Cuba to collect fossils guided and Iturralde-Vinent, 2006). This chronostratigraph- by Carlos de la Torre y Huerta and was impressed by ic interval is poor in marine reptiles in other parts of the Jurassic fauna of the Viñales region. The occurrence 25 Iturralde-Vinent y Ceballos Izquierdo Table 1. Repositories and abbreviations for material investigated in this paper. of Oxfordian beds in western Cuba bearing ammoni- ian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C., tes, fish, and marine reptiles was consequently reported the American Museum of Natural History in New by Brown and O’Connell (1919, 1922). York City, the Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley, Perhaps the earliest paper describing the Cuban and the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. Jurassic fish fauna was by Sánchez-Roig (1920), who During the second half of the 20th century addition- collected fossils with his father and Juan Gallardo al samples were collected by Antonio Núñez-Jiménez concurrently with the Brown expeditions. He illus- (housed at the Antonio Núñez-Jiménez Foundation trated some rare Tithonian fish remains, which have for Nature and Humanity), A. Pszczólkowski, R. been stored in the British Museum of Natural Histo- Myczyński, C. Judoley, G. Furrazola-Bermúdez and R. ry since 1924 (Z. Johanson, personal commun., 2009) Gutiérrez-Domech (stored at the Instituto de Geología and Gregory (1923) described several new fish taxa y Paleontología de Cuba). treasured at the American Museum of Natural Histo- With the exception of a rhamphorhynchid ptero- ry. Since then, few new taxa have been published from saur in the collection of the American Museum of museum collections in the United States of America Natural History (Colbert, 1969), most of the Cuban (Arratia and Schultze, 1985; Brito, 1997, 1999; Thies, Late Jurassic reptile specimens were poorly prepared, 1989; White, 1942). inadequately studied, and improperly allocated taxo- Others collectors, active during the first half of nomically before 1996. These specimens were usually the 20th century, includes: América Ana Cuervo, Ricar- identified as ichthyosaurs (De la Torre y Madrazo and do De la Torre y Madrazo, Julio de Quesada, Theo- Cuervo, 1939; De la Torre y Madrazo and Rojas, 1949) dore E. White, Thomas Barbour, David H. Dunkle, or sauropod dinosaurs (De la Torre y Callejas, 1949). Julian Millo, Carl Parsons, and Charles W. Hatten. In
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