A new well-preserved sturgeon (Chondrostei: Acipenseridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada

Authors

  • Hiroki Sato Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada
  • Oksana Vernygora Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada
  • Alison M. Murray Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada
  • Philip J. Currie Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada

Keywords:

Acipenseriformes, Campanian, Dinosaur Park Formation

Abstract

In June 2016, the remains of an articulated fish was discovered during field work in Dinosaur Provincial Park, in southern Alberta, Canada. Articulated remains of fishes are very rare in the park, so this specimen was carefully collected and prepared. The new specimen represents a new species of sturgeon that differs from those previously reported from the Cretaceous of North America by the ornamentation patterns of the dermal skull elements. We believe that the radiating ridges forming the ornamentation on the dermal skull bones of the new Dinosaur Park specimen is indicative of it being a different species from that represented by any of the scutes or other articulated material previously named.

References

Grande, L. and Hilton, E. J. 2006. An exquisitely preserved skeleton representing a primitive sturgeon from the Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana (Acipenseriformes: Acipenseridae: n. gen. and sp.). Journal of Paleontology 80 (suppl to 4), 1–39.

Grande, L. and Hilton, E. J. 2009. A replacement name for †Psammorhynchus Grande & Hilton, 2006 (Actinopterygii, Acipenseriformes, Acipenseridae). Journal of Paleontology 83, 317–318.

Hilton, E. J. and Grande, L. 2006. Review of the fossil record of sturgeons, family Acipenseridae (Actinopterygii: Acipenseriformes), from North America. Journal of Paleontology 80, 672–683.

Hilton, E. J., Grande, L. and Bemis, W. E. 2011. Skeletal anatomy of the shortnose sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum Lesueur, 1818, and the systematics of sturgeons (Acipenseriformes, Acipenseridae). Fieldiana Life and Earth Sciences 3, 1–168.

Vavrek, M. J., Murray A.M. and Bell P. R. 2014. An early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) sturgeon (Acipenseriformes) from the Dunvegan Formation, northwestern Alberta, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 51, 677–681.

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Published

30-06-2017

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2017): JANUARY - JUNE

Section

Articles

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