AbstractsEarth & Environmental Science

Actinopterygian remains have been recovered from Upper Cretaceous (uppermost lower to lowermost upper Campanian) marine strata of the Kristianstad Basin, southern Sweden. This is the first record of Upper Cretaceous bony fish from the Fennoscandian shield. The fauna consists of higher taxa including Pachycormiformes (Pachycormidae), Elopiformes (Pachyrhizodontidae), Pycnodontiformes (Pycnodontidae), Aulopiformes (Enchodontidae), Ichthyodectiformes (Ichthyodectidae), and indeterminable teleost fish. The ichthyofauna comprises a relative vast number of disarticulated meso-to macroscopic bony elements (e.g. vertebrae, isolated teeth, cycloid scales, coprolites, otolithes and fin spines). All major groups are so far only recognized by a few numbers of isolated dental remains suggesting major taphonomic losses prior to preservation. The total amount of recovered bony fish elements indicates the presence of a diverse teleostean/actinopterygian fauna, although taxonomic assessments of the material are severely hampered by the low preservational degree. In addition, previous works on the vertebrate assemblage of the Kristianstad Basin have resulted in major collection biases towards larger marine vertebrates which has led to an under-representation of the actinopterygian fauna. The ichthyofauna of the Kristianstad Basin bears compositional resemblance towards those in the North American Western Interior Seaway suggesting palaeobiogeographical communication.