The Pender Formation is a
geologic formation
A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...
in
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
. It preserves
fossils
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...
dating back to the
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
period. Organisms that have been recovered from this formation include indeterminate
Elasmosaurids
Elasmosauridae is an extinct family of plesiosaurs, often called elasmosaurs. They had the longest necks of the plesiosaurs and existed from the Hauterivian to the Maastrichtian stages of the Cretaceous, and represented one of the two groups of p ...
,
Mosasaur
Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Greek ' meaning 'lizard') comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on th ...
ids, and a
Chelonioidean, as well as the sea turtle ''
Desmatochelys
''Desmatochelys'' (from Greek δεσμός ''desmos'' 'link' + χέλῡς ''khelus'' ‘tortoise’) is an extinct genus of sea turtles belonging to the family Protostegidae. This genus contains two known species, ''D. lowii'' and ''D. padillai ...
'' and the
Mosasaurine
The Mosasaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs, a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates. Members of the subfamily are informally and collectively known as "mosasaurines" and their fossils have been recovered from every continent except ...
''
Kourisodon
''Kourisodon'' ("razor tooth") is an extinct genus of mosasaur. Fossils have been found from Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada,Nicholls, E. L. and Meckert, D. (2002). Marine reptiles from the Nanaimo Group (Upper Cretaceous) of Vanc ...
''.
See also
*
References
References
*
Cretaceous British Columbia
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