[dinosaur] Sauropod teeth from high latitude Yakutia, Siberia, Russia

Ben Creisler
[email protected]

A new paper:

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Alexander O. Averianov, Pavel P. Skutschas, Rico Schellhorn, Alexey V.
Lopatin, Petr N. Kolosov, Veniamin V. Kolchanov, Dmitry D. Vitenko, Dmitry
V. Grigoriev  & Thomas Martin (2019)
The northernmost sauropod record in the Northern Hemisphere.
Lethaia (advance online publication)
doi:  https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__doi.org_10.1111_let.12362&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=HfQk1qfiR2DW3_brECmn_93watzeRersMUfmmxAzdpc&s=VGfsAspq52APz8WQgXiKMc4jvR2YtcJV5Lotz_SSyvQ&e= 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__onlinelibrary.wiley.com_doi_10.1111_let.12362&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=HfQk1qfiR2DW3_brECmn_93watzeRersMUfmmxAzdpc&s=MtpoUICJL441megeFWNTIFzEk_jDGUEr_EnOMAEeOLM&e= 


Isolated sauropod teeth from the Early Cretaceous Teete locality in Yakutia
(Eastern Siberia, Russia) are the only evidence that sauropods lived in
high latitudes (palaeolatitude estimate of N 62°) in the Northern
Hemisphere. The spatulate broad tooth crowns of adult individuals lack
marginal denticles while these are present in a juvenile tooth. The teeth
have overlapping facets and likely belong to a basal macronarian. The
juvenile tooth indicates that sauropods reproduced in high latitudes and
possibly stayed there around the year. The Teete vertebrate assemblage
comprises both endothermic, or presumably endothermic tetrapods (theropod
dinosaurs, tritylodontids and mammals), and ectothermic tetrapods
(salamanders, turtles, choristoderes and lizards), but no crocodyliforms.
This suggests a temperate climate, with an annual mean temperature well
above freezing level but below 14°C.