Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 119, Issue 39, Pages -Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2211234119
Keywords
end-Cretaceous mass extinction; east Asia; dinosaur eggshells; magnetostratigraphy
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41688103, 41888101, 41672012, 41874079, 42004052, 42030205]
- Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDA17010403, XDB26000000, XDB41010304]
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This study establishes a high-resolution geochronological framework for the Late Cretaceous sedimentary sequence in the Shanyang Basin of central China and finds evidence of a long-term decline in global dinosaur biodiversity prior to 66 million years ago, which likely set the stage for the end-Cretaceous nonavian dinosaur mass extinction.
Whether or not nonavian dinosaur biodiversity declined prior to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction remains controversial as the result of sampling biases in the fossil record, differences in the analytical approaches used, and the rarity of high-precision geochronological dating of dinosaur fossils. Using magnetostratigraphy, cyclostratigraphy, and biostratigraphy, we establish a high-resolution geochronological framework for the fossil-rich Late Cretaceous sedimentary sequence in the Shanyang Basin of central China. We have found only three dinosaurian eggshell taxa (Macroolithus yaotunensis, Elongatoolithus elongatus, and Stromatoolithus pinglingensis) representing two clades (Oviraptoridae and Hadrosauridae) in sediments deposited between similar to 68.2 and similar to 66.4 million y ago, indicating sustained low dinosaur biodiversity, and that assessment is consistent with the known skeletal remains in the Shanyang and surrounding basins of central China. Along with the dinosaur eggshell records from eastern and southern China, we find a decline in dinosaur biodiversity from the Campanian to theMaastrichtian. Our results support a long-term decline in global dinosaur biodiversity prior to 66 million y ago, which likely set the stage for the end-Cretaceous nonavian dinosaur mass extinction.
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