Result from the López de Bertodano Formation #paleostream! I have been looking forward to this one for a while as it combines some fascinating aspects of the latest Cretaceous. This formation was deposited in Antarctica and I hear you all: "wait a sec, that's not what I imaged this environment to look?!".
And you are correct, López de Bertodano is usually reconstructed as a humid, coastal lowland and shallow temperate sea with muddy bottom. However for the sake of the composition we moved the place of this piece to a volcanic island off the...
coast. While I could have shown said landscape that is suggested for this formation it also wouldn't have been the most effective way to show the interesting parts of this fauna. The terrestrial fauna largely consists off fragmentary remains that can barely be identified to...
family level. It looks quite a lot better underwater, with a rich assemblage of ammonites, sharks and marine reptiles. Among them the largest specimen of Aristonectes a filter feeding plesiosaur. However the main reason this formation made it onto the wheel was the presence of...
a large number of marine birds. There are associated remains and even skulls and that in an place that is otherwise not that well suited for the preservation of birds, which might hint at them being surprisingly abundant. Because of that is o9nly felt fitting to show a large...
...nesting colony of them. NOTE that Conflicto is known from the early Paleocene not the Cretaceous part of the formation, but for various reasons we speculate here that this animal would also live before the K-Pg event. Size chart by me with help by Discord member Avery.
