TAPHONOMIC ANALYSIS OF A MOSASAUR SPECIMEN FROM CRETACEOUS, MS: INITIAL RESEARCH RESULTS

Historically, the majority of mosasaur research has been conducted in Alabama, Kansas, and Texas, within Upper Cretaceous embayment strata. In the southeast US, mosasaur research in Mississippi has been lacking for several decades, although many of the same chalk formations of south-central Alabama are also located in east Mississippi. The Selma Group, from the Coffee Sand to the Prairie Bluff Chalk, is exposed in MS and is the same strata that produced some of the United States best Mosasaurus, Clidastes, Platecarpus, Plioplatecarpus, and Tylosaurus specimens in other states.

A recently recovered mosasaur skeleton from Oktibbeha County, MS has the potential to expand mosasaur understanding and distribution. This research focuses upon the taphonomic analysis of that specimen. Preserved trace fossils were examined and identified, and analysis proceeded through comparative examination of published research specimens. Traces included grazing marks on the scapula and ribs, borings in flipper bones, and encrusting by bivalves. The taphonomic research results illustrate that the preservation quality of Mississippi’s Cretaceous vertebrate fossils is of greater research quality than had previously been acknowledged.