Abstract
The stratigraphic position of layers containing plant and animal remains in the Koryak Highlands (Northeast Asia) is under discussion. Their age is defined as late Campanian–early Maastrichtian. Plant-bearing and bone-bearing rocks represent cemented basaltic tephra. The former contain a small amount of xenogenic material and slightly rounded volcaniclastic material, which indicates its insignificant transportation. Ash particles in bone-bearing rocks are even less rounded. Among them, there are no rock fragments of other composition. Large bones and their fragments, as xenoliths, are chaotically distributed in the rock matrix as if floating in mass of ash material. This burial site was probably formed in a continental environment as a result of the gravitational and eolian transportation of the terrigenous material. The burial of small dinosaur bones and teeth occurred during the deposition of a small stream of a semiliquid water-ash mixture. This work presents a possible mechanism of the formation of burial sites, taking into consideration proposed conditions of the life and reproduction of dinosaurs in the Late Mesozoic Arctic.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anonymous, C.I.A., Handbook, Polar Regions Atlas, National Foreign Assessment Center, C.I.A, USA, 1978.
Dundo, O.P., Korotkevich, V.D., and Vasilenko, L.V., Opornyi razrez senona (ob"yasnitel’naya zapiska k polevomu atlasu rukovodyashchei fauny senona severo-vostochnoi chasti Koryakskogo nagor’ya) (Reference Section of the Senonian Stage (Explanatory Note to Field Atlas of Main Senonian Fauna from Northeastern Part of Koryak Highlands), Leningrad: Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Geol. Arktiki,1974 [in Russian].
Filippova, G.G., Stratigrafiya i flora melovykh otlozhenii severnoi chasti khrebta Pekul’nei (Chukotka) (Stratigraphy and Flora of the Cretaceous Deposits in the Northern Pekul’nei Ridge (Chukotka)), Magadan: Sev.-Vost. Kompl. Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Dalnevost. Otd. Ross. Akad. Nauk,2010 [in Russian].
Geologicheskii slovar' (Dictionary of Geology), Moscow: Nedra, 1978, vol. 2 [in Russian].
Godefroit, P., Golovneva, L., Shczepetov, S., and Garcia, G, The last polar dinosaurus and the Cretaceous–Tertiary mass extinction event, Naturwissenschaften, 2009, vol. 96, pp. 495–501.
Golovneva, L.B., Maastrichtian–Danian floras of the Koryak Highlands, Tr. Botan. Inst. RAN, 1994, vol. 13 [in Russian].
Golovneva, L.B., The Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) climate in the Northern Hemisphere, in Climates: Past and Present, Hart, M.B., Ed., Spec. Publ.—Geol. Soc. London,2000, vol. 181, pp. 43–54.
Golovneva, L.B. and Shczepetov, S.V., Stratigraphy of Maastrichtian deposits in the Kakanaut River basin (eastern Koryak Highlands), in Paleobotanika. T. 1 (Paleobotany. Vol. 1), St. Petersburg: Marafon, 2010, pp. 96–119
Golovneva, L.B., Platonov, M.V., Alekseev, P.I., et al., The formation of burial sites of plants and dinosaurs in the Maastrichtian deposits of the Kakanaut Formation (Koryak Highlands, northeastern Russia), in Ch. pamyati A.N. Kryshtofovicha. Vyp. 7 (Lectures in Memory of A.N. Kryshtofovich “Problems of Paleofloristics and Systematics of Fossil Plants”. Iss. 7), St. Petersburg: Botan. Inst. Ross. Akad. Nauk, 2011, pp. 101–127.
Golovneva, L.B. and Gnilovskaya, A.A., Plant remains from the Late Cretaceous Vysokorechenskaya Formation (Koryak Highlands), in Paleobotanika. T. 6 (Paleobotany. Vol. 6), St. Petersburg: Marafon, 2015, pp. 36–47.
Golovneva, L.B. and Grabovskii, A.A., Stratigraphic position and localities of the Temlyan flora from the lower reaches of the Anadyr River, in Paleobotanika. T. 6 (Paleobotany. Vol. 6), St. Petersburg: Marafon, 2015, pp. 48–67.
Gosudarstvennaya geologicheskaya karta SSSR masshtaba 1: 200000. Ser. Koryakskaya. List P-60-IX. Ob”yasnitel’naya zapiska (The 1: 200000 State Geological Map of the USSR. Ser. Koryak. Sheet P-60-IX. Explanatory Note), Moscow, 1979 [in Russian].
Gosudarstvennaya geologicheskaya karta SSSR masshtaba 1: 200000. Ser. Koryakskaya. Listy P-60-X, XVI (zaliv Pekul’veem), P-60-XI, XII (Ugol’naya), P-60-XVII, XVIII (mys Navarin). Ob”yasnitel’naya zapiska (The 1: 200000 State Geological Map of the USSR. Ser. Koryak. Sheets P-60-X, XVI (Pekul’veem Bay), P-60-XI, XII (Ugolnaya Bay), P-60- XVII, XVIII (Navarin Cape). Explanatory Note), Moscow, 1990 [in Russian].
Herman, A.B., Cretaceous flora of the Anadyr–Koryak subregion (northeastern Russia): systematics, age, stratigraphic and florogenetic significance, in Tr. Geol. Inst. RAN. Vyp. 529 (Bull. Geol. Inst. Russ. Acad. Sci.), Moscow: GEOS,1999, vol. 529 [in Russian].
Herman, A.B., Albian–Paleocene flora of the Northern Pacific, in Tr. Geol. Inst. RAN. Vyp. 592 (Bull. Geol. Inst. Russ. Acad. Sci.), Moscow: GEOS, 2011, vol. 592 [in Russian].
Herman, A.B., Spicer, R.A., and Spicer, T.E.V, Environmental constraints on terrestrial vertebrate behavior and reproduction in the High Arctic of the Late Cretaceous, Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 2016, vol. 441, pp. 317–338.
Classification and nomenclature of volcaniclastic rocks, in Petrograficheskii kodeks: Magmaticheskie i metamorficheskie obrazovaniya (Petrographic Code: Magmatic and Metamorphic Formations), St. Petersburg: Vseross. Nauchno- Issled. Geol. Inst., 1995. Suppl. 3, pp. 113–116.
Maslova, N.P., Moiseeva, M.G., Herman, A.B., and Kvacek, I., Did plane trees exist in the Cretaceous? Paleontol. J., 2005, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 440–453.
Maslova, N.P. and Herman, A.B, Approach to identification of fossil angiosperm leaves: applicability and significance of Krassilov’s morphological system, Bot. Pacifica, 2015, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 103–108.
Moiseeva, M.G. and Sokolova, A.B., Campanian flora of the Ugolnaya Bay area (northeastern Russia): systematics and paleoclimate, in Ch. pamyati A.N. Kryshtofovicha. Vyp. 7 (Lectures in Memory of A.N. Kryshtofovich “Problems of Paleofloristics and Systematics of Fossil Plants”. Iss. 7), Golovneva, L.B., Ed., St. Petersburg: Marafon, 2011, pp. 62–87.
Nessov, L.A. and Golovneva, L.B., Evolution of flora and vertebrate fauna and climatic fluctuations during the late Senonian in the northeastern Koryak Highlands, in Kontinental’nyi mel SSSR (Continental Cretaceous of the USSR), Vladivostok: Dalnevost. Otd. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 1990, pp. 191–212.
Pokhialainen, V.P., Mel Severo-Vostoka Rossii (The Cretaceous of the northeastern Russia), Magadan: Severo-Vost. Kompl. Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Dalnevost. Otd. Ross. Akad. Nauk, 1994 [in Russian].
Resheniya Tret’ego Mezhvedomstvennogo regional’nogo stratigraficheskogo soveshchaniya po dokembriyu, paleozoyu i mezozoyu Severo-Vostoka Rossii, St. Peterburg, 2002 (Resolution of the 3rd Interdepartmental Regional Stratigraphic Conferences on Precambrian, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic of Northeastern Russia. St. Petersburg, 2002), Koren’, T.N. and Kotlyar, G.V., Eds., St. Petersburg: Vseross. Nauchno- Issled. Geol. Inst., 2009 [in Russian].
Rusakov, I.M. and Egizarov, B.Kh., Stratigraphy of Mesozoic deposits of the southern slope of the eastern Koryak Range, in Tr. Mezhved. Soveshch. po razrabotke unifitsirovannykh stratigraficheskikh skhem Severo-Vostoka SSSR, 1957 (Proc. Interdepart. Conf. on Development of Unified Stratigr. Schemes of the Northeastern USSR), Magadan: Magadan. Kn. Izd., 1959, pp. 307–311.
Shczepetov, S.V., Golovneva, L.B., Godefroit, P., and Alekseev, P.I., Maastrichtian burial site of plants and dinosaurs in the South Chukotka: geological structure, stratigraphy, biota composition, in Voprosy paleofloristiki i sistematiki iskopaemykh rastenii. Ch. pamyati A.N. Kryshtofovicha. Vyp. 6 (Lectures in Memory of A.N. Kryshtofovich “Problems of Paleofloristics and Systematics of Fossil Plants”. Iss. 6), St. Petersburg: Botan. Inst. RAN, 2008, pp. 97–109.
Stratigraficheskii slovar’ SSSR. Trias, yura, mel (Stratigraphic Code of Russia. Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous), Leningrad: Nedra, 1979 [in Russian].
Stratigraficheskii kodeks Rossii. Izd. tret’e (Stratigraphic Code of Russia, 3rd ed.), St. Petersburg: Vseross. Nauchno- Issled. Geol. Inst., 2006 [in Russian].
Terekhova, G.P. and Dundo, O.P, Anadyr–Koryak area, in Stratigrafiya SSSR. Melovaya sistema (Stratigraphy of the USSR. Cretaceous System), Moscow: Nedra, 1987, vol. 2, pp. 137–154.
Vassilevskaya, N.D. The floristic characteristics of Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits of central and eastern Koryak Highlands, in Geologiya Koryakskogo nagor’ya (Geology of the Koryak Highlands), Moscow: Gostekhizdat, 1963, pp. 87–97.
Volobueva, V.I. and Krasny, L.L., Maastrikht-neogenovye otlozheniya vostochnoi chasti Koryakskogo nagor’ya (Maastrichtian–Neogene Deposits of the Eastern Koryak Highlands), Moscow: Nauka, 1979 [in Russian].
Volobueva, V.I. and Terekhova, G.P., About the Cretaceous- Paleogene boundary beds in the eastern part of the Koryak–Anadyr area, in Stratigrafiya i litologiya melovykh, paleogenovykh i neogenovykh otlozhenii Koryaksko-Anadyrskoi oblasti (Stratigraphy and Lithology of Cretaceous, Paleogene, and Neogene Deposits of the Koryak–Anabar Region), Leningrad: Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Geol. Arktiki, 1974, pp. 53–58.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © S.V. Shczepetov, A.B. Herman, 2017, published in Stratigrafiya, Geologicheskaya Korrelyatsiya, 2017, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 42–61.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shczepetov, S.V., Herman, A.B. The formation conditions of the burial site of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs and plants in the Kakanaut River basin (Koryak Highlands, Northeastern Asia). Stratigr. Geol. Correl. 25, 400–418 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0869593817040050
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0869593817040050