Review of the danian vertebrate fauna of southern Scandinavia

Abstract

The vertebrate fauna in the Danian deposits of Denmark and southern Sweden is reviewed. Remains of sharks and bony fishes are widely distributed but not common in the Danian limestones, with the exception of the K/Pg-boundary clay, the Fiskeler Member, at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Stevns Klint, which can include substantial quantities of shark teeth and fragments of bony fishes. Articulated remains of bony fishes are known from the Fiskeler Member at Stevns Klint and the København Limestone Formation in the Limhamn quarry. Sharks are only found as isolated teeth and rare isolated vertebrae. The gavialoid crocodylian Thoracosaurus is represented by a complete skull and associated postcranial material and an additional jaw fragment from the Limhamn quarry. Remains of a crocodylian skull, a cervical vertebra, a limb bone and isolated teeth have been found in the Faxe quarry, and a single possibly alligatorid tooth is known from the basal conglomerate of the Lellinge Greensand Formation from now closed exposures below Copenhagen. Fragmentary turtle material has been found in the Faxe and Limhamn quarries and in the København Limestone in Copenhagen, and bird remains are exclusively known from the Limhamn quarry. Despite the fragmentary nature of many of the finds, the total picture of the vertebrate fauna of southern Scandinavia is quite diverse comprising four classes, 23 orders, 41 families and 54 identifiable genera of which most can be identified to species level.