VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE EARLY CRETACEOUS (ALBIAN) KIOWA FORMATION FROM CLARK STATE FISHING LAKE, CLARK COUNTY, KANSAS

For much of northern Oklahoma and south-central Kansas, vertebrate fauna of the Early Cretaceous (Albian) Kiowa Formation is poorly known. Sparsity of accessible outcrops and limited productivity of the few studied localities have contributed to the paucity of data for most vertebrate paleofauna throughout this region. This preliminary study has identified multiple vertebrate taxa recovered from the Kiowa Formation of Clark State Fishing Lake in Clark County, Kansas. Bulk sediment sampling from a 36-meter interval of the Kiowa Formation has yielded a total of 36 identifiable vertebrate fossils. Representatives from Actinopterygii (orders Amiiformes, Ichthyodectiformes, Pycnodontiformes, and Semionotiformes) and Chondrichthyes (orders Lamniformes, Hybodontiformes, and Sclerorhynchiformes) are described from this single measured section. Sedimentological and biostratigraphic data provide additional implications for greater paleoecological analysis; most notably the contextual placement of these reported vertebrate fauna within the Late Albian, Early Cretaceous Kiowa Formation of south-central Kansas. Further study of trophic dynamics and niche occupation of vertebrate and invertebrate fauna from this locality could provide additional insight to potential taxa that may have occupied this same paleoecosystem but have not yet been recovered.