A focused search for ancient marine vertebrates during a paleontological resource inventory of Mammoth Cave National Park has yielded a wealth of new fossil data. To date, paleontologists have identified marine vertebrate fossils from four primary horizons at the park, two of which are the first records of marine vertebrate fossils occurring in those horizons. Mammoth Cave sites have produced more than 70 species of ancient fish, about 90% representing cartilaginous fishes (sharks and kin), including two new species: Troglocladodus trimblei and Glikmanius careforum.
Mammoth Cave National Park, in central Kentucky, is home to the longest cave system in the world.
To date, more than 685 km (426 miles) of passageways have been mapped within 214 km2 that form the park. In addition, there are over 500 smaller caves within the park boundary.
These cave passages were formed through dissolution by underground rivers, streams, and other drainages that cut through a series of limestones, capped by a resistant sandstone, that date to 340 to 325 million years ago.
These passages opened a unique view of these limestones, which are time capsules holding a wealth of information on the ancient marine environments of their deposition.
Invertebrate fossils from these beds such as horn corals, fan-like bryozoans, brachiopods, gastropods, shelled cephalopods, and a diverse array of echinoderms have been found throughout the various formations that form the cave.
“Every new discovery at Mammoth Cave is possible due to collaborations,” said Superintendent Barclay Trimble.
“Our park team is honored to work alongside the National Park Service Paleontology Program and now the University of Alabama Geological Sciences Department whose coordinated efforts have made this latest announcement possible.”
The two new species of ctenacanth sharks, Troglocladodus trimblei and Glikmanius careforum, would have hunted the ancient near-shore habitats that covered Kentucky and Alabama…
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