OSTEICHTHYANS FROM THE SHARK RIVER FORMATION (MIDDLE EOCENE) AND KIRKWOOD FORMATION (EARLY MIOCENE) CONTACT, MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY, USA

A disconformity and lag deposit that separates the middle Eocene Squankum Member of the Shark River Formation from the early Miocene Asbury Park Member of the Kirkwood Formation near Farmingdale, Monmouth County, New Jersey contains osteichthyan remains belonging to at least 12 taxa including: Pogonias sp.; Tautoga cf. T. onitis (Linnaeus, 1758); Paralbula marylandica Blake, 1940; Cylindracanthus rectus Agassiz, 1843; Sphyraena sp.; Scomberomorus sp.; Trichiurus sp.; Acanthocybium cf. A. solandri (Cuvier, 1832); Paralichthys sp.; Ostraciidae gen. indet., Sciaenidae gen. indet.; and cf. Beryciformes. The localized accumulation and concentration of osteichthyan remains is the result of eustatic sea level fluctuation and reflects a complex taphonomic history of exhumation and reburial across the shallow, middle Cenozoic New Jersey continental shelf. This fossil osteichthyan assemblage is similar to other contemporaneous nearshore faunas found throughout the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains of the USA and elsewhere throughout the Northern Atlantic Ocean Basin. The wide-spread distribution of these osteichthyans also demonstrates the continuity of shallow marine shelf environments and the utility of osteichthyans in regional and transatlantic stratigraphic studies.