Acta Palaeontologica Polonica

Teeth of embryonic or hatchling sauropods from the Berriasian (Early Cretaceous) of Cherves-de-Cognac, France

Paul M. Barrett, Joane Pouech, Jean-Michel Mazin, and Fiona M. Jones

Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 61 (3), 2016: 591-596 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4202/app.00257.2016

The Cherves-de-Cognac site (Charente, France) has yielded a diverse continental microvertebrate fauna of Berriasian (earliest Cretaceous) age. Dinosaur remains are rare, but include three teeth that are referrable to an indeterminate sauropod, which might represent either a titanosauriform, a non-titanosauriform macronarian or a non-neosauropod. The small size of these teeth (with a maximum length of 3 mm, as preserved) and the almost complete absence of emanel wrinkling suggests that they pertained to embryonic or hatchling individuals. The Cherves-de-Cognac sauropod represents a rare occurrence of sauropod embryos/hatchlings, a new sauropod record from the poorly-known terrestrial Berriasian and another possible instance of the persistence of non-diplodocoid, non-titanosauriform sauropods into the Cretaceous.

Paul M. Barrett [p.barrett@nhm.ac.uk], Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK. Joane Pouech [joane.pouech@upmc.fr], UMR 7207-UPMC-MNHN-CNRS-Sorbonne Universités, Centre de Recherche sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France. Jean-Michel Mazin [jean-michel.mazin@univ-lyon1.fr], UMR 5276-CNRS/ENS, Université Lyon1, Campus de la Doua, 2 rue Dubois, Bâtiment Géode, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France. Fiona M. Jones [fiona.jones@gtc.ox.ac.uk], Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.


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