Late Cretaceous elasmobranchs from the Mahajanga Basin of Madagascar

Abstract

Recent collecting in the Mahajanga Basin of northwestern Madagascar has expanded our knowledge of Late Cretaceous elasmobranchs from the island. Mahajanga Basin exposures of the Upper Maastrichtian Berivotra Formation have produced teeth attributable to the following taxa: Pristiophorus sp. (Pristiophoriformes, Pristiophoridae);Parapalaeobates sp. (Rajiformes, Rhinobatidae); cf. Brachyrhizodus sp. (Rajiformes, Myliobatoidea);Carcharias sp. (Lamniformes, Odontaspididae);Squalicorax kaupi and S. pristodontus (Lamniformes, Anacoracidae); and Serratolamna serrata, Cretolamna appendiculata, and C. maroccana (Lamniformes, Cretoxyrhinidae). These taxa have relatively cosmopolitan distributions at the end of the Cretaceous: collectively, the Berivotra elasmobranchs are consistent with late Maastrichtian elasmobranch assemblages from North Africa, the Middle East, and the USA, supporting a late Maastrichtian age assignment for the Berivotra Formation.