RE: paleonet Cretaceous fish in NW Iowa

["Judith Harris" <harrisj@xxxxxxx>]

There is an old U.S.G.S. Professional Paper by Theodore Cockerell that is
entirely devoted to identifying Cretaceous fish scales. Sorry I cant
remember the date but early part of 20th century. Maybe somebody else can
add to these details.

Judith

-----Original Message-----
From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk [mailto:paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk]On
Behalf Of James Mahaffy
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 3:45 PM
To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
Subject: paleonet Cretaceous fish in NW Iowa


This message never appeared on paleonet but since paleonet seems to be
working now, here is a retry.  Actually I think I had a word in the subject
line of my message that made the software think I was sending a message to
the software and not the list.  In any case here is a retry.


Folks,

This past summer I was involved in uncovering a big icthyodectid fish from
the softer clay/mud in the Greenhorn formation (Bridge Creek Member) here in
NW Iowa.  Then a couple week ago, I was leading a field trip to local
Cretaceous outcrops and one of the members found a large scale.  I assume it
also belongs to an icthyodectid.

Two questions.

1. Can we identify the scale (see url:
http://homepages.dordt.edu/~mahaffy/paleo/fish/fishscale.html) any further
than icthyodectid?


2. When the collector (a former paleontology student of mine) and I get the
big fish uncovered (it is articulated but may be a bit messed up by
predation), which are the best keys to look at to identify the fish? Also
are there some good Cretaceous fish experts that I could go to check ID?
The reason for my asking is I am trained  more as Pennsylvanian palynologist
than a vertebrate paleontologist and just don't know the Cretaceous fish
workers.   Since Dordt is smaller I teach paleontology and it was fun
getting out the big skeleton.  Depending on what it is, I am told by one of
our state geologists that it may be a significant find.  I have a copy of
John Chorn and Gloria Arratia's article in vertebrate palenotology (1998) of
a fish from the Greenhorn.

James Mahaffy (mahaffy@dordt.edu)        Phone: 712 722-6279
Biology Department                                     FAX :  712 722-1198
Dordt College, Sioux Center IA 51250