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A direct association between amber and dinosaur remains provides paleoecological insights

Hadrosaurian dinosaurs were abundant in the Late Cretaceous of North America, but their habitats remain poorly understood. Cretaceous amber is also relatively abundant, yet it is seldom found in direct stratigraphic association with dinosaur remains. Here we describe an unusually large amber specime...

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Autores principales: McKellar, Ryan C., Jones, Emma, Engel, Michael S., Tappert, Ralf, Wolfe, Alexander P., Muehlenbachs, Karlis, Cockx, Pierre, Koppelhus, Eva B., Currie, Philip J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6884503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31784622
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54400-x
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author McKellar, Ryan C.
Jones, Emma
Engel, Michael S.
Tappert, Ralf
Wolfe, Alexander P.
Muehlenbachs, Karlis
Cockx, Pierre
Koppelhus, Eva B.
Currie, Philip J.
author_facet McKellar, Ryan C.
Jones, Emma
Engel, Michael S.
Tappert, Ralf
Wolfe, Alexander P.
Muehlenbachs, Karlis
Cockx, Pierre
Koppelhus, Eva B.
Currie, Philip J.
author_sort McKellar, Ryan C.
collection PubMed
description Hadrosaurian dinosaurs were abundant in the Late Cretaceous of North America, but their habitats remain poorly understood. Cretaceous amber is also relatively abundant, yet it is seldom found in direct stratigraphic association with dinosaur remains. Here we describe an unusually large amber specimen attached to a Prosaurolophus jaw, which reveals details of the contemporaneous paleoforest and entomofauna. Fourier-transform Infrared spectroscopy and stable isotope composition (H and C) suggest the amber formed from resins exuded by cupressaceous conifers occupying a coastal plain. An aphid within the amber belongs to Cretamyzidae, a Cretaceous family suggested to bark-feed on conifers. Distinct tooth row impressions on the amber match the hadrosaur’s alveolar bone ridges, providing some insight into the taphonomic processes that brought these remains together.
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spelling pubmed-68845032019-12-06 A direct association between amber and dinosaur remains provides paleoecological insights McKellar, Ryan C. Jones, Emma Engel, Michael S. Tappert, Ralf Wolfe, Alexander P. Muehlenbachs, Karlis Cockx, Pierre Koppelhus, Eva B. Currie, Philip J. Sci Rep Article Hadrosaurian dinosaurs were abundant in the Late Cretaceous of North America, but their habitats remain poorly understood. Cretaceous amber is also relatively abundant, yet it is seldom found in direct stratigraphic association with dinosaur remains. Here we describe an unusually large amber specimen attached to a Prosaurolophus jaw, which reveals details of the contemporaneous paleoforest and entomofauna. Fourier-transform Infrared spectroscopy and stable isotope composition (H and C) suggest the amber formed from resins exuded by cupressaceous conifers occupying a coastal plain. An aphid within the amber belongs to Cretamyzidae, a Cretaceous family suggested to bark-feed on conifers. Distinct tooth row impressions on the amber match the hadrosaur’s alveolar bone ridges, providing some insight into the taphonomic processes that brought these remains together. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-11-29 /pmc/articles/PMC6884503/ /pubmed/31784622 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54400-x Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
McKellar, Ryan C.
Jones, Emma
Engel, Michael S.
Tappert, Ralf
Wolfe, Alexander P.
Muehlenbachs, Karlis
Cockx, Pierre
Koppelhus, Eva B.
Currie, Philip J.
A direct association between amber and dinosaur remains provides paleoecological insights
title A direct association between amber and dinosaur remains provides paleoecological insights
title_full A direct association between amber and dinosaur remains provides paleoecological insights
title_fullStr A direct association between amber and dinosaur remains provides paleoecological insights
title_full_unstemmed A direct association between amber and dinosaur remains provides paleoecological insights
title_short A direct association between amber and dinosaur remains provides paleoecological insights
title_sort direct association between amber and dinosaur remains provides paleoecological insights
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6884503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31784622
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54400-x
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