1. The carboniferous--Permian fossil record of Prince Edward Island, Canada, grows in significance.
- Author
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CALDER, JOHN H., BRUNET, PATRICK, CORMIER, LISA, MACNEIL, LAURA, and STIMSON, MATT
- Subjects
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FOSSILS , *RED beds - Abstract
For many years, the fossil record of the latest Carboniferous to early Permian redbeds of Prince Edward Island (PEI) was considered to be sparse and inconsequential. Its most famous famous fossil Bathygnathus borealis, the first Dimetrodon discovery in 1845, was considered an anomaly. This perception changed with the publication describing the exceptional parareptile Erpytonyx arsenaultorum discovered in 1995. The footprint record of tetrapods was unknown prior to the 1980s, when trackways were reported from Point Prim and Malpeque. Since that time discoveries of tetrapod footprints have grown at an increasing rate and at increasing number of localities. The discovery in September 2022 of a yet undescribed articulated tetrapod skeleton near the Erpetonyx site caused an unexpected media stir that brought the fossil record of the Island into many people's homes. Subsequently in September 2022 the wrath of Hurricane Fiona was felt most profoundly on the north shore of PEI; large tetrapod trackway-bearing sandstone blocks in the National Park were completely removed in that event, while resulting erosion brought to light many new sites, across the north shore in particular. The footprint record represents a diverse record of vertebrates, favouring reptilian taxa from the diminutive Hyloidichnus sp. to Dimetropus sp., one of the largest early Permian reptilian taxa. The fossil record of tetrapods and their trackways now places PEI firmly in the league of the southwestern USA and Germany as important biodiverse paleoequatorial vertebrate sites of the early Permian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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