NEW EVIDENCE OF DINOSAURS FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS OF SOUTH CAROLINA

A new assemblage of Upper Cretaceous reptiles from the Campanian and Maastrichtian deposits of eastern South Carolina contains numerous new occurrences of theropod and hadrosaurid dinosaurs that increase the number of localities producing dinosaur remains in the eastern United States to over twenty-five. Dinosaur remains were found with many incomplete bones of pleurodira (side-necked turtles), Bothremys, the aquatic turtles Adocus, Agomphus , trionychids and sea turtles. Among other abundant reptilian remains are four crocodilians (Deinosuchus, Thoracosaurus, Bottosaurus and Borealosuchus), three mosasaur taxa, (Mosasaurus, Platecarpus and Tylosaurus), elasmosaur plesiosaurs, and a teiid lizard. This assemblage is a mixture of marine and non-marine taxa dominated by turtles and crocodiles, consisting of fragmented bones that are characteristic of lag deposits.

Fourteen localities were investigated to determine their geologic history as well as the stratigraphic position of the fossils contained in them. Evidence of dinosaurs was found at six of these localities, which include two principal deposits, one at Stokes Quarry in Darlington County (former Stokes Quarry) that is age equivalent to the mid-Campanian Coachman Formation, and the other being the late Campanian Donoho Creek Formation at Kingstree in Williamsburg County. These two sites yielded the majority of the dinosaurian specimens. The Kingstree site was collected by Erickson during the 1982/83 field season, producing the earliest dinosaurian remains. These collections are housed in the South Carolina State Museum (SCSM), Columbia, S.C. and the Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN. Other dinosaurian material is housed in the Charleston Museum (CM), Charleston, S.C.