Re: paleonet Cretaceous fish in NW Iowa

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Hi again James,

Add Dr. Christopher Fielitz <cfielitz@ehc.edu>to the list of North American Western Interior Cretaceous bony fish experts, who has worked on Turonian fish scales/fauna, enchodontids, and some other bony fish fossils.

Kenshu

>>> kshimada@depaul.edu 10/19/01 18:35 PM >>>
James,

Try Drs. David Bardack <dbardack@uic.edu: note that he is out of town until early? November) and J.D. Stewart <jstewart@nhm.org>. They are the experts on North American Western Interior Cretaceous bony fishes who may be able to help you out.

Kenshu

Kenshu Shimada, Ph.D.
Environmental Science Program
and Department of Biological Sciences
DePaul University
2320 N. Kenmore Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614, USA
AND
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago
845 W. Taylor Street
Chicago, IL 60607-7060, USA

>>> Mahaffy@dordt.edu 10/19/01 04:45PM >>>
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 artculated 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