The Geology and Paleontology of the Late Cretaceous Marine Deposits of the Dakotas
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THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Special Paper 427 gOF AMERICA' The Geology and Paleontology of the Late Cretaceous Marine Deposits of the Dakotas QE 1 G62 ted by James E. Martin no,427 and David C. Parris The Geology and Paleontology of the Late Cretaceous Marine Deposits of the Dakotas Edited by James E. Martin Museum of Geology Department of Geology and Geological Engineering South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Rapid City, South Dakota 57701 USA and David C. Parris Bureau of Natural History New Jersey State Museum P.O. Box 530 Trenton, New Jersey 08625 USA M THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA® Special Paper 427 3300 Penrose Place, P.O. Box 9140 ■Boulder, Colorado 80301-9140 2007 Copyright 2007, The Geological Society of America, Inc. (GSA). All rights reserved. GSA grants permission to individual scientists to make unlimited photocopies of one or more items from this volume for noncommercial purposes advancing science or education, including classroom use. 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GSA Books Science Editor: Marion E. Bickford Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The geology and paleontology of the late Cretaceous marine deposits of the Dakotas / edited by James E. Martin and David C. Parris. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8137-2427-0 (pbk.) 1. Sediments (Geology)—South Dakota. 2. Sediments (Geology)—North Dakota. 3. Geology—South Dakota. 4. Geology—North Dakota. 5. Paleontology—Cretaceous. 6. Geology, Stratigraphic—Cretaceous. I. Martin, James E. II. Parris, David C. QE471.2.G465 2007 557.83—dc22 2007009883 Cover: Screened image is the Late Cretaceous Niobrara Chalk overlain by newly defined members of the Sharon Springs Formation of the Pierre Shale Group. The large reptile is that of a new species of the mosasaur (Hainosaurus) feeding upon a diving bird (Hesperornis). The illustration in the right foreground is a reconstruction of a new species of the Late Cretaceous diving bird (Baptornis). Both illustrations courtesy of Daniel Varner. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents I. Introduction to the geology and paleontology of the Late Cretaceous marine deposits of the Dakotas 1 D.C. Parris, S.Y. Shelton, and J.E. Martin 2. Revised lithostratigraphy of the lower Pierre Shale Group (Campanian) of central South Dakota, including newly designated members 9 J.E. Martin, J.L. Bertog, and D.C. Parris 3. Geochemical and mineralogical recognition of the bentonites in the lower Pierre Shale Group and their use in regional stratigraphic correlation 23 J. Bertog, W. Huff, and J.E. Martin 4. Stratigraphy and paleoecology of the middle Pierre Shale along the Missouri River, central South Dakota 51 P.A. Hanczaryk and W.B. Gallagher 5. Rare earth element (REE) analysis of fossil vertebrates from the Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale Group for the purposes of paleobathymetric interpretations of the Western Interior Seaway 71 D. Patrick, J.E. Martin, D.C. Parris, and D.E. Grandstaff 6. Mollusks from the late Campanian upper DeGrey Formation of the Pierre Shale Group, Missouri River Valley, central South Dakota 85 J.E. Fox 7. Fossil fish from the Pierre Shale Group (Late Cretaceous): Clarifying the biostratigraphic record 99 D.C. Parris, B.S. Grandstaff, and W.B. Gallagher 8. Taxonomic comparison and stratigraphic distribution of Toxochelys (Testudines: Cheloniidae) of South Dakota 111 M. Hart Carrino 9. A new polycotylid plesiosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Greenhorn Limestone (Upper Cretaceous; lower upper Cenomanian), Black Hills, South Dakota 133 B.A. Schumacher 10. Comparison of gastroliths within plesiosaurs (Elasmosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous marine deposits of Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula, and the Missouri River area, South Dakota 147 W.A. Thompson, J.E. Martin, and M. Reguero iii iv Contents 11. Rare earth element determination of the stratigraphic position of the holotype of Mosasaurus missouriensis (Harlan), the first named fossil reptile from the American West 155 D. Patrick, J.E. Martin, D.C. Parris, and D.E. Grandstaff 12. Stomach contents of Globidens, a shell-crushing mosasaur (Squamata), from the Late Cretaceous Pierre Shale Group, Big Bend area of the Missouri River, central South Dakota 167 J.E. Martin and J.E. Fox 13. A new species of the durophagous mosasaur, Globidens (Squamata: Mosasauridae) from the Late Cretaceous Pierre Shale Group of central South Dakota, USA 177 J.E. Martin 14. A North American Hainosaurus (Squamata: Mosasauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of southern South Dakota 199 J.E. Martin 15. The largest mosasaur (Squamata: Mosasauridae) from the Missouri River area (Late Cretaceous; Pierre Shale Group) of South Dakota and its relationship to Lewis and Clark 209 R.W. Meredith, J.E. Martin, and P.N. Wegleitner 16. Pteranodon (Reptilia: Pterosauria): Stratigraphic distribution and taphonomy in the lower Pierre Shale Group (Campanian), western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming 215 J.E. Hargrave 17. A new species of the diving bird, Baptornis (Ornithurae: Hesperornithiformes), from the lower Pierre Shale Group (Upper Cretaceous) of southwestern South Dakota 227 J.E. Martin and A. Cordes-Person 18. Amphibian, reptilian, and avian remains from the Fox Hills Formation (Maastrichtian): Shoreline and estuarine deposits of the Pierre Sea in south-central North Dakota 239 J.W. Hoganson, J.M. Erickson, and F.D. Holland Jr. The Geological Society of America Special Paper 427 2007 A North American Hainosaurus (Squamata: Mosasauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of southern South Dakota James E. Martin Museum of Geology, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701, USA ABSTRACT A partial skull of a large mosasaur was discovered eroding from the upper Cam- panian shales of the DeGrey Formation of the Pierre Shale Group from Gregory County, South Dakota. Although the skull is not complete, sufficient characters exist to indicate that the specimen represents the first undisputed North American occur- rence of the large tylosaurine mosasaur Hainosaurus, otherwise best known from the Maastrichtian of Europe. Diagnostic characters include relatively laterally com- pressed, symmetrical teeth with finely serrated carinae, an interlocking premaxillary- maxillary suture, a very large alar opening of the quadrate, a distinctly laterally deflected quadrate shaft, a nontriangular centrum outline of anterior caudal verte- brae, and, in particular, a pineal opening bordered by the frontal and parietal. Fea- tures of the quadrate indicate that the South Dakota specimen represents a new species of Hainosaurus, which is described herein. Keywords: mosasaur, Hainosaurus, Cretaceous, South Dakota, Europe. INTRODUCTION French occurrences (Bardet, 1990) have been included within Tylosaurus (Lindgren, 2005). Hainosaurus was first described from During the Late Cretaceous Period, mosasaurs dominated North America by Nicholls (1988); however, later authors have the oceans of the world, and the longest mosasaurs known to exist shown that her species should be included with the genus Tylo- during this interval were included within the Tylosaurinae. Within saurus. This species, Tylosaurus pembinensis, was perhaps closely this subfamily, two genera, Tylosaurus and Hainosaurus, consti- related to Tylosaurus ivoensis from the lower Campanian deposits tute a lineage of these exceedingly large carnivorous reptiles. of Sweden (Lindgren, 2005; Lindgren and Siverson, 2002). Tylosaurus is well known from the upper Niobrara Formation Of the large species of tylosaurines, Tylosaurus proriger and (Santonian—lower Campanian) and the overlying Sharon Springs Hainosaurus bernardi are the best known. Tylosaurus proriger is Formation (lower middle Campanian) of the Pierre Shale Group well known, particularly from Santonian to lower Campanian de- (see Martin et al., this volume, for stratigraphic nomenclature) of posits within the North American Western Interior Seaway. Haino- the Western Interior Seaway of North America (Russell, 1967). saurus bernardi occurs in the upper Campanian—Maastrichtian Hainosaurus was originally described from the lower Maastricht- deposits in Belgium and is known by only three specimens ian Ciply phosphatic chalk deposits of southwestern Belgium (Dollo, 1885a,b; Lingham-Soliar, 1992; Mulder and Mai, 1999). (Dollo, 1885a) and has been noted from other areas in Europe, The type specimen is IRsNB R23C from near Mons in southern including Sweden (Lindgren, 2005), Poland (Jagt et al., 2005), Belgium; a second specimen is IRsNB 3672 from nearby Bau- southern England (Lingham-Soliar, 1993; Lindgren, 2005), and dour,