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Journal of Paleontology

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SMALL VERTEBRATES FROM THE LATE CRETACEOUS AND EARLY TERTIARY OF THE NORTHEASTERN ARAL SEA REGION, KAZAKHSTAN

E. G. KORDIKOVA¹, P. D. POLLY^*,2,3, V. A. ALIFANOV⁴, Z. ROEK^5,6, G. F. GUNNELL⁷ and A. O. AVERIANOV⁸

¹ Kapchagay Geological Expeditions, 480008 Almaty, Kazakhstan
² Molecular and Cellular Biology Section, Biomedical Sciences Division, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom
³ Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 6BD, United Kingdom
⁴ Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 117647, Moscow, Russia
⁵ Department of Paleontology, Geological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Rozvojová 135, CZ-16500, Praha 6-Suchdol, Czech Republic,
⁶ Department of Zoology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Charles University, Vininá 7, 128 44 Prague, Czech Republic
⁷ Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-1079, USA
⁸ Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

Field work conducted in the northeastern Aral Sea Region, southwestern Kazakhstan has produced a large number of vertebrates from late Cretaceous and early Tertiary sediments. Included among these vertebrates are sharks, bony fishes, amphibians, turtles, lizards, crocodiles, and dinosaurs. This fauna comes from three formations, the Turonian-Coniacian Zhirkindek, the Santonian-Campanian Bostobe, and the early Tertiary Akzhar formations. In this paper we describe the microvertebrate fauna. The Akzhar fauna consists only of marine sharks, one hexanchiform species (Notidanodon cf. loozi) and four lamniform species (Carcharias teretidens, Striatolamia striata, Otodus obliquus var. minor, and Palaeocarcharodon orientalis). These suggest a Paleocene age, most likely Selandian or earliest Thanetian. In addition to previously described components, the Bostobe fauna now includes a discoglossid frog and the lizard Slavoia cf. darevskii. This is the first Mesozoic record of each in Kazakhstan and the latest record anywhere of the latter. The Zhirkindek fauna is now known to include a varanid lizard.