A VERY DIVERSE LATE CRETACEOUS MARINE VERTEBRATE ASSEMBLAGE FROM ALLISONS FERRY, FLORENCE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA

A very diverse late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) marine vertebrate fauna has been recovered from the rocks and sediments of the Pee Dee Formation exposed along the west bank of the Great Pee Dee River at Allisons Ferry, Florence County, South Carolina. To date forty taxa have been identified, including thirty-two chondrichthyans, seven osteichthyans, and one mosasaur. Although a few of these vertebrates were previously reported from the Peedee Formation at the Burches Ferry site in Florence County (Lawrence and Hall, 1987), most were heretofore not known to occur in the state. New chondrichthyan records for South Carolina include Lissodus sp., Heterodontus sp., Squatina hassei, Chiloscyllium sp., Cantioscyllium sp., Plicatoscyllium derameei, Plicatoscyllium antiquum, Plicatosycllium sp. cf. P. globidens, Pararhincodon sp., Carcharias sp.cf C. holmdelensis, Serratolamna serrata, Palaeogaleus sp., Squatigaleus sp. cf. S. sulphurensis, Scylliorhinus sp. cf. S. ivagrantae, Rhinobatos uvulatus, Pseudohypolophus sp., Raja farishi, Schlerorhychus sp.,Ptychotrygon vermiculata, Ptychotrygon sp. aff. P. winni, Texatrygon sp., Hamrabatis weltoni, Myliobatidae gen. et sp. indet., Texabatus corrugatus, Tomewingia problematica, Rhombodus binkhorsti, and Dasyatis sp. In addition, six osteichthyans are new records, including Enchodus petrosus, Enchodus gladiolus, Paralbula casei, Anomoeodus phaseolus, Hadrodus sp. Cf. H. priscus, and Dercetidae gen. et sp. indet.

Many of the species listed above have been reported from Texas, North Carolina, or both and their discovery in SC is not surprising. However, the SC material provides additional data on the paleoenvironments inhabited by these taxa, as well as the paleobiogeographic ranges for the species. Further investigation of the vertebrate paleontology of the Peedee Formation will focus on sampling the entire vertical exposure at Burches Ferry as well as at Cains Landing, a site that is geographically between Burches Ferry (older) and Allisons Ferry (younger).