• DOI:10.18476/pale.v10.a6
• Corpus ID: 134476316

The occurrence of early Pleistocene marine fish remains from the Gulf Coast of Mobile County, Alabama, USA

@article{Ebersole2017TheOO,
  title={The occurrence of early Pleistocene marine fish remains from the Gulf Coast of Mobile County, Alabama, USA},
  author={Jun A. Ebersole and Sandy M. Ebersole and David J. Cicimurri},
  journal={Palaeodiversity},
  year={2017},
  volume={10},
  pages={115 - 97}
}

• Jun A. Ebersole, S. Ebersole, D. Cicimurri
• Published 14 July 2017
• Environmental Science, Geography
• Palaeodiversity

Abstract We examined 91 specimens recovered as beach wash on the shores of Dauphin Island and the nearby Sand/ Pelican Island Complex located in the northern Gulf of Mexico in Mobile County, Alabama, USA. A total of 12 unequivocal taxa were identified within our sample, including Carcharias taurus, Carcharodon carcharias, Cosmopolitodus hastalis, Carcharhinus leucas, Carcharhinus sp. cf. C. longimanus, Carcharhinus obscurus, Carcharhinus sp. cf. C. plumbeus, Negaprion brevirostris, Galeocerdo cuvier, Hemipristis serra, Aetobatus sp., and Diodontidae. Although not collected in situ, the preservation of the teeth, the biostratigraphic ranges of the taxa, and local stratigraphy suggests these fossils were derived from the shallow lower Pleistocene, Biloxi Formation and may be as young as Calabrian in age. Two extinct taxa in our sample, C. hastalis and H. serra, are among the stratigraphically youngest occurrences for each species. A comparison to extant representatives suggests this fossil assemblage preferred a warm, shallow, near-shore habitat with a water depth of 100 m or less. These fossils represent the first Quaternary marine vertebrates reported from Alabama.