Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History. By David L  Wagner. Princeton (New Jersey): Princeton University Press. $60.00 (hardcover); $29.95 (paper). 512 p; ill.; foodplant index and taxonomic and subject index. ISBN: 0–691–12143–5 (hc); 0–691–12144–3 (pb). 2005.

The faunal changes that occurred in the few million years before the Cretaceous–Palaeogene extinction are of much interest to vertebrate palaeontologists. Western North America preserves arguably the best fossil record from this time, whereas terrestrial vertebrate fossils from the eastern portion of the continent are usually limited to isolated, eroded postcranial remains. Examination of fragmentary specimens from the American east, which was isolated for the majority of the Cretaceous as the landmass Appalachia, is nonetheless important for better understanding dinosaur diversity at the end of the Mesozoic. Here, I report on two theropod teeth from the Mount Laurel Formation, a lower-middle Maastrichtian unit from northeastern North America. One of these preserves in detail the structure of the outer enamel and resembles the dentition of the tyrannosauroid Dryptosaurus aquilunguis among latest Cretaceous forms in being heavily mediolaterally compressed and showing many moderately developed enamel crenulations. Along with previously reported tyrannosauroid material from the Mt Laurel and overlying Cretaceous units, this fossil supports the presence of non-tyrannosaurid tyrannosauroids in the Campanian–Maastrichtian of eastern North America and provides evidence for the hypothesis that the area was still home to relictual vertebrates through the end of the Mesozoic. The other tooth is assignable to a dromaeosaurid and represents both the youngest occurrence of a non-avian maniraptoran in eastern North America and the first from the Maastrichtian reported east of the Mississippi. This tooth, which belonged to a 3–4 m dromaeosaurid based on size comparisons with the teeth of taxa for which skeletons are known, increases the diversity of the Maastrichtian dinosaur fauna of Appalachia. Along with previously reported dromaeosaurid teeth, the Mt Laurel specimen supports the presence of mid-sized to large dromaeosaurids in eastern North America throughout the Cretaceous.

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Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs. By Whitney Cranshaw. Princeton (New Jersey): Princeton University Press. $99.50 (hardcover); $29.95 (paper). xvi + 656 p; ill.; index. ISBN: 0–691–09560–4 (hc); 0–691–09561–2 (pb). 2004.

The Quarterly Review of Biology ◽

10.1086/428205 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 79 (4) ◽

pp. 434-434

Author(s):

John Alcock

Keyword(s):

New Jersey ◽

North America ◽

Princeton University

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Osteology and phylogeny of small-bodied hadrosauromorphs from an end-Cretaceous marine assemblage

Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society ◽

10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa085 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 191 (1) ◽

pp. 180-200

Author(s):

Chase Doran Brownstein

Keyword(s):

New Jersey ◽

North America ◽

Late Cretaceous ◽

Eastern Coast ◽

Eastern North America ◽

Post Mortem ◽

Western North America ◽

Dominant Group ◽

Dinosaur Extinction ◽

Depositional Setting

Abstract The timing of non-avian dinosaur decline is one of the most debated subjects in dinosaur palaeontology. Dinosaur faunas from the last few million years of the Mesozoic appear far less diverse than those from earlier in the Cretaceous, a trend that could suggest non-avian dinosaur extinction occurred gradually. However, the limited nature of the latest Cretaceous dinosaur record outside western North America has obscured patterns in dinosaur diversity just before the extinction. Here, I describe two associated skeletons and several isolated fossils recovered from the New Egypt Formation of New Jersey, a latest Maastrichtian unit that underlies the K–Pg boundary. The larger skeleton appears to be a small-bodied adult from a lineage outside Hadrosauridae, the dominant group of these animals during the Maastrichtian, that persisted along the eastern coast of North America. Smaller specimens are identifiable as juvenile hadrosauromorphs. These results substantiate an important assemblage of herbivorous dinosaurs from the poorly-known Cretaceous of eastern North America. The marine depositional setting for these skeletons demonstrates that proposed ecosystem preferences among hadrosauromorphs may be biased by post-mortem transportation, and the adult skeleton has implications for assessing the proposed relictual nature of Late Cretaceous eastern North American vertebrates.

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