April 21, 2016

The marine lower Toarcian (Early Jurassic) formations outcropping in Europe are widely known to have produced diverse faunas of secondarily marine reptiles, especially coming from black bituminous shales and marlstones of Western Europe. Conversely, little attention has been paid to marine reptile material recovered from time-equivalent beds of North-Eastern Germany due to the scarcity of productive localities. Here, a previously undescribed marine reptile assemblage comprising ichthyosaur, plesiosaur and thalattosuchian crocodyliform remains from the marine marginal lower Toarcian (the Harpoceras falciferum ammonite Zone) "Green Series" of North-Eastern Germany is reported, complementing previous records of these groups from Northern Germany with an early Toarcian age. Although fragmentary and largely indeterminate, this material is significant in indicating the presence of a probable new and unnamed ichthyosaur taxon. Moreover, the marine reptile material described herein is significant because it includes the first reliable report of both plesiosaurs and thalattosuchian crocodyliforms from the lower Toarcian of North-Eastern Germany, confirming their presence in this region during Toarcian times.

Sebastian Stumpf (2016)
New information on the marine reptile fauna from the lower Toarcian (Early Jurassic) "Green Series" of North-Eastern Germany.
Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen 280(1): 87-105
DOI: http: // dx.doi.org/10.1127/njgpa/2016/0567