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Late Cretaceous dinosaurian remains from the Kristianstad Basin of southern Sweden

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Author

  • Stephen F. Poropat
  • Elisabeth Einarsson
  • Johan Lindgren
  • Mohamad Bazzi
  • Clarence Lagerstam
  • Benjamin P. Kear

Summary, in English

Mesozoic dinosaur fossils are exceptionally rare in Scandinavia. The Swedish record is typically depauperate, with the Kristianstad Basin of SkÅne (Scania) yielding all of the known fossils from Swedish Cretaceous strata. Although highly fragmentary, these body remnants are important because they provide evidence of a relatively diverse fauna, including previously recognized hesperornithiform birds and leptoceratopsid ceratopsians, as well as indeterminate ornithopods that are confirmed here for the first time. In this paper, we describe three phalanges (from Åsen) and an incomplete right tibia (from Ugnsmunnarna) from the Kristianstad Basin. One of the phalanges appears to pertain to a leptoceratopsid ceratopsian, providing further evidence of these small ornithischians in the Cretaceous sediments of Sweden. The other two phalanges are interpreted as deriving from small ornithopods similar to Thescelosaurus and Parksosaurus. The tibia appears to represent the first evidence of a non-avian theropod dinosaur in the Cretaceous of Sweden, with a previous report of theropod remains based on fish teeth having been corrected by other authors. The remains described herein provide important additions to the enigmatic dinosaurian fauna that inhabited the Fennoscandian archipelago during the latest Cretaceous.

Publishing year

2016

Language

English

Pages

231-239

Publication/Series

Geological Society Special Publication

Volume

434

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Geological Society of London

Topic

  • Geology

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0305-8719