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A surfeit of theropods in the Moroccan Late Cretaceous? Comparing diversity estimates from field data and fossil shops

A surfeit of theropods in the Moroccan Late Cretaceous? Comparing diversity estimates from field data and fossil shops
A surfeit of theropods in the Moroccan Late Cretaceous? Comparing diversity estimates from field data and fossil shops
An unusually high proportion of large-bodied carnivorous theropod dinosaurs has been reported from the Moroccan Late Cretaceous Kem Kem Formation, a well-known package of North Africa vertebrate fossil–bearing sediments. We investigate whether recorded proportions of predator and prey taxa in Kem Kem sediments are real, or an artifact generated by collecting biases, by comparing field data to counts of fossil vertebrates from Moroccan fossil shops. The application of common techniques for standardizing ecological survey data confirms that previous workers have been misled by the acquisition by museums of specimens from commercial collectors rather than from detailed field surveying. Claims that an unusual number of theropod dinosaurs were present in North Africa Late Cretaceous ecosystems are likely the result of biases due to both commercial activity and collectorship biases.
0091-7613
843-846
McGowan, Alistair J.
b47c15e4-ca6e-4111-96b0-fb088deda8d7
Dyke, Gareth J.
600ca61e-b40b-4c86-b8ae-13be4e331e94
McGowan, Alistair J.
b47c15e4-ca6e-4111-96b0-fb088deda8d7
Dyke, Gareth J.
600ca61e-b40b-4c86-b8ae-13be4e331e94

McGowan, Alistair J. and Dyke, Gareth J. (2009) A surfeit of theropods in the Moroccan Late Cretaceous? Comparing diversity estimates from field data and fossil shops. Geology, 37 (9), 843-846. (doi:10.1130/G30188A.1).

Record type: Article

Abstract

An unusually high proportion of large-bodied carnivorous theropod dinosaurs has been reported from the Moroccan Late Cretaceous Kem Kem Formation, a well-known package of North Africa vertebrate fossil–bearing sediments. We investigate whether recorded proportions of predator and prey taxa in Kem Kem sediments are real, or an artifact generated by collecting biases, by comparing field data to counts of fossil vertebrates from Moroccan fossil shops. The application of common techniques for standardizing ecological survey data confirms that previous workers have been misled by the acquisition by museums of specimens from commercial collectors rather than from detailed field surveying. Claims that an unusual number of theropod dinosaurs were present in North Africa Late Cretaceous ecosystems are likely the result of biases due to both commercial activity and collectorship biases.

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Published date: September 2009
Organisations: Ocean Biochemistry & Ecosystems

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 205171
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/205171
ISSN: 0091-7613
PURE UUID: 764c80bb-5b6c-439f-874d-c36402fff01c

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Date deposited: 05 Dec 2011 10:11
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 04:33

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Contributors

Author: Alistair J. McGowan
Author: Gareth J. Dyke

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