The carbon stable isotope composition (δ13C) of tooth enamel in mosasaurid squa-mates reflects aspects of their diet and diving behaviour. Here we present new δ13C data for such marine squamates from the Maastrichtian of Denmark and compare these with results obtained in previous studies from the lower-latitude type area of the Maastrichtian Stage (latest Cretaceous; 72.1–66.0 Ma) in the south-east Nether-lands and north-east Belgium. For the Danish samples, there is a weak correlation between mosasaur body size and δ13C values, with larger-sized taxa having lower δ13C values, comparable to what has previously been observed for mosasaurs from the Maastrichtian type area.
Two mosasaur tooth crowns collected from the Maastrichtian chalk sequences of Stevns Klint and Møns Klint are here assigned to Prognathodon, a mosasaur genus hitherto unknown from Denmark. Together with previous records of the mosasaurs Plioplatecarpus, Mosasaurus and Carinodens, these new finds of Prognathodon document the coexistence of four mosasaurid genera in the Danish chalk and underscore simi-larities to coeval assemblages from the Maastrichtian type area in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Giant deer Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799) fossils are commonly found in Lateglacial deposits throughout Ireland. While their migrational behaviour has been suggested, it has never been researched. We hypothesise that giant deer underwent seasonal migrations, specifically during Late Pleistocene cold periods as a behavioural adaptation. Giant deer required a high nutrient uptake and were maladapted to the cold-dry steppe of the Pleistocene glacials. Migration allowed for optimal nutrient uptake during summer, while avoiding the harsh winter conditions of the glacials by moving to sheltered, low-lying areas. In this study strontium isotope analysis ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) of sequentially sampled dental enamel is conducted for the first time on giant deer that were previously sampled in the same manner for δ 13 C and δ 18 O, allowing correlations between the isotope data sets. One specimen from Ballybetagh, Dublin generated results indicating seasonal mobility behaviour. This individual was perhaps pushed to migrate at the Younger Dryas stadial onset as the vegetation giant deer depended on disappeared in Ireland. Adaptive mobility behaviour in response to climate was perhaps imperative to their survival through previous glacial periods, but other Eurasian populations would need to be analysed to make such a general conclusion.
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