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Fossil frogs from the early Campanian of West Texas, USA, with comments on Late Cretaceous anuran diversity in southern Laramidia

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Abstract

A rare early Campanian (Aquilan) assemblage consisting of disarticulated anuran bones is described from the Aguja Formation of West Texas, USA. Many specimens within the assemblage pertain to taxonomically informative elements (maxillae, urostyles, and ilia). Morphological variety among specimens pertaining to each suggests high local species richness comparable with that seen elsewhere among frogs from similarly well-sampled localities of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior. Comparison between environmentally and temporally analogous microvertebrate assemblages in southern Utah, USA, reveals that anurans in both areas exhibit morphological similarities consistent with regionally allied ‘southern’ faunas. Among their differences, one character (dorsal protuberance of the ilium) consistently exhibited among some ilial morphotypes from Utah is conspicuously absent among those of West Texas. Two ostensibly exclusive ilial morphs in West Texas add additional support to the presence of taxonomically segregated, sub-regional populations of anurans in southern Laramidia during early to middle Campanian time.

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Acknowledgements

Over many years, T. Lehman has provided very useful stratigraphic interpretations and entertaining insights involving the lower shale throughout the Big Bend region. I also thank M. Brown and J.C. Sagebiel of the Texas Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory at the Jackson School Museum of Earth Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin for their continued support and curation of the specimens reported herein. J. Gardner of the Royal Tyrrell Museum and an anonymous referee provided critical reviews which significantly improved the manuscript. An additional word of gratitude is extended to A. Brink who assisted both in bulk matrix processing and with the microscopic collection of specimens, as well as J. Wick who assisted with fieldwork.

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    Steven L. Wick

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Wick, S.L. Fossil frogs from the early Campanian of West Texas, USA, with comments on Late Cretaceous anuran diversity in southern Laramidia. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 101, 947–966 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-021-00481-4

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