The Upper Cretaceous Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia, has produced several partial sauropod skeletons, but cranial remains—including teeth—remain rare. Herein, we present the first description of sauropod teeth from this formation, based on specimens from three separate sites. An isolated tooth and a dentary fragment from the
Diamantinasaurus matildae
type locality are considered to be referable to that titanosaurian taxon. A single tooth from the
D. matildae
referred specimen site is similarly regarded as being part of that individual. Seventeen teeth from a new site that are morphologically uniform, and similar to the teeth from the two
Diamantinasaurus
sites, are assigned to Diamantinasauria. All sauropod teeth recovered from the Winton Formation to date are compressed-cone-chisel-shaped, have low slenderness index values (2.00–2.88), are lingually curved at their apices, mesiodistally convex on their lingual surfaces, and lack prominent carinae and denticles. They are markedly different from the chisel-like teeth of derived titanosaurs, more closely resembling the teeth of early branching members of the titanosauriform radiation. This provides further support for a ‘basal’ titanosaurian position for Diamantinasauria. Scanning electron microscope microwear analysis of the wear facets of several teeth reveals more scratches than pits, implying that diamantinasaurians were mid-height (1–10 m) feeders. With a view to assessing the spatio-temporal distribution of sauropod tooth morphotypes before and after deposition of the Winton Formation, we provide a comprehensive continent-by-continent review of the early titanosauriform global record (Early to early Late Cretaceous). This indicates that throughout the Early–early Late Cretaceous, sauropod faunas transitioned from being quite diverse at higher phylogenetic levels and encompassing a range of tooth morphologies at the start of the Berriasian, to faunas comprising solely titanosaurs with limited dental variability by the end-Turonian. Furthermore, this review highlights the different ways in which this transition unfolded on each continent, including the earliest records of titanosaurs with narrow-crowned teeth on each continent.
the northern Hemisphere dominates our knowledge of Mesozoic and cenozoic fossilized tree resin (amber) with few findings from the high southern paleolatitudes of Southern Pangea and Southern Gondwana. Here we report new Pangean and Gondwana amber occurrences dating from ~230 to 40 Ma from Australia (Late triassic and paleogene of tasmania; Late cretaceous Gippsland Basin in Victoria; Paleocene and late middle Eocene of Victoria) and New Zealand (Late Cretaceous Chatham Islands). The Paleogene, richly fossiliferous deposits contain significant and diverse inclusions of arthropods, plants and fungi. These austral discoveries open six new windows to different but crucial intervals of the Mesozoic and early cenozoic, providing the earliest occurrence(s) of some taxa in the modern fauna and flora giving new insights into the ecology and evolution of polar and subpolar terrestrial ecosystems. Amber, or ancient tree resin, is valued most highly in science as an exceptional preservation medium for small organisms as fossil bioinclusions. In paleontology, diverse animals, plants and microorganisms have the potential of being preserved in three dimensions in the finest of detail. Worldwide, ambers have been recorded dominantly in upper Mesozoic to lower Cenozoic rocks from Northern Hemisphere and Northern Gondwana localities, but only one southern high latitude occurrence of microorganisms and microbe-like inclusions in amber has been published from the early Late Cretaceous (Turonian) in the Flaxman and Waarre formations of southern Victoria, Australia 1. Other Late Cretaceous ambers have recently been reported from the Chatham Islands, New Zealand 2 , representing internal plant resin canals (no exuded amber), and small to minute amber fragments have been reported from the early Paleogene (early Eocene) of western Tasmania 3 , mid-Paleogene of Victoria 4 and strandline deposits of the southern coast of Australia from Victoria to the west coast 5 (Fig. 1). However, no preserved animals or plants have yet been found. Neogene ambers have been reported from the Mio-Pliocene Australian Latrobe Valley Coal, cropping out near Yallourn, Allendale and also Lal Lal in Victoria in Australia 6,7 (Fig. 1). Earlier reports of Cretaceous amber sourced from the Wonthaggi Coal Mine 7 have proved to be anomalous and not from the Mesozoic or early Cenozoic 1. Amber from Cape York, far northern Queensland, Australia, is under study to establish if it is autochthonous or allochthonous (see discussion in Supplementary Text). New
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