Jesper Milàn

• Ph.d.
• Curator of Geology at Østsjællands Museum

The Late Triassic deposits in the Jameson Land Basin, central East Greenland, stand as a crucial fossil area, yielding a diverse Norian vertebrate fauna. This basin, situated at a palaeolatitude of 41° N on the northern rim of Pangea and bordered in the North by the Boreal Sea, was a hub of activity during the Late Triassic. A large ephemeral to pe...

Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) sand- and siltstones of the Hasle Formation on the Danish Island of Bornholm have yielded a diverse invertebrate and vertebrate assemblage dominated by marine taxa. Recently, dental and skeletal remains of terrestrial animals have also been collected from this rock unit, including the first tritylodontid tooth from Sc...

A new find is identified as a representative of the subfamily Spinilomatinae, viz. Spiniloma? faxensis sp. nov. The specimen was found as an impression in coral limestone of the early Paleocene (middle Danian) Faxe Formation in the Faxe quarry in Denmark. The genus Spiniloma was until now known exclusively from the Mesozoic of Europe. The new f ind...

A new myriacanthid holocephalian is described from the Hasle Formation (probably the Uptonia jamesoni subzone to the Acanthopleuroceras valdani subzone, Early Pliensbachian, Early Jurassic) of Bornholm, Denmark, on the basis of isolated upper posterior (palatine) and lower posterior (mandibular) tooth plates. Oblidens bornholmensis gen. et sp. nov....

Over recent decades, the type area of the Maastrichtian Stage in southern Limburg (the Netherlands) and contiguous Belgian territory, and the former ENCI-HeidelbergCement Group quarry (Sint-Pietersberg, Maastricht) in particular, has yielded an exquisitely preserved ichnocoenosis of bioerosional trace fossils, mainly preserved as natural casts in s...

Fossilienjagd in Dänemark In diesem Buch wird über die häufigsten Fossilien berichtet, die entlang der Strände in Dänemark und in ausgewählten Steinbrüchen zu finden sind. An Stevns- und Møns Klinter, auf Bornholm, auf Fur, entlang der Westküste, im Gram Lergrav und an vielen anderen Orten - insgesamt werden 27 besonders gute Standorte behandelt....

Serpulid remains are very rare in the Lower Jurassic Hasle Formation of Bornholm, Denmark. A historical specimen mentioned, but not figured by Malling & Grön wall (1909) was reexamined and attributed to Pentaditrupa quinquesculcata and here f igured for the first time. New finds of additional well-preserved serpulid tubes are described as Serpula?...

Turiasauria is a clade of basal sauropod dinosaurs hitherto only known from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) to the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian). A new find of a shed tooth crown from the Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian), Halse Formation of Bornholm, Denmark, is spoon-like, asymmetrical, and heart-shaped, which identifies the tooth as turiasaurian,...

Evaluating the effect of the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction on malacostracan crustaceans.

The 17th International Ichnofabric Workshop, a small conference on all aspects of ichnology, was held in Faxe, Denmark in October 2023. This edited and peer-reviewed, 94-page volume contains the abstracts of talks and poster presentations, the program, and guides to the pre-, mid-, and post-meeting field trips. Field trips included visits to Stevns...

During the Mid-Devonian, about 385Ma, and the subsequent 20 million years, the ancestors of tetrapods gradually developed the ability to walk onto land. • The earliest tetrapods showed polydactyly in their limbs, having six, seven or even eight digits in their feet. • Fossilised tracks and trackways from the earliest tetrapods show how they walked...

Tubes of a new serpulid species, Neovermilia gundstrupensis sp. nov., from the lower part of the Kerteminde Marl Formation (Selandian, middle Paleocene) of Gundstrup gravel pit, Fyn, Denmark, represent the first serpulids of this group from the Selan-dian of Denmark. Within the long-ranging genus Neovermilia (Oxfordian to Recent), the new finds ext...

Over seven Danish-US team paleontological field expeditions occurred in the Jameson Land Basin in East Greenland between 1989 and 2001. Their objective was to recover vertebrate fossils to understand the evolution of the vertebrate fauna of the region and its dynamics with their palaeoenvironments through geological times. The Triassic basin was lo...

Herein we describe phytosaurs from thin fluvial overbank sandstones of the Upper Triassic Malmros Klint Formation of the Fleming Fjord Group (central East Greenland). The new sample includes more than 150 disarticulated bones and teeth from small to large specimens belonging to at least four individuals. The fossils mostly consist of teeth and post...

A critical reassessment of foraminiferan parasitism on echinoid hosts, past and present, identifies all previous records as doubtful and circumstantial evidence as being limited to possible foraminiferan bioerosion traces on a Late Cretaceous Echinocorys perconicus host from Northern Germany. Here, we report on a second type of putative foraminifer...

Oblidens bornholmensis, known from isolated upper posterior (palatine) and lower posterior (mandibular) tooth plates, was the first myriacanthid holocephalian to be described from the Hasle Formation (Pliensbachian, Early Jurassic) of Bornholm (Denmark). Further collecting in the Hasle Formation has yielded seven more specimens of myriacanthid toot...

Cylindrical borings assigned to ichnospecies Trypanites mobilis Neumann, Wisshak & Bromley, 2008, are common in bulbous echinoid spines (Tylocidaris baltica and Ty. vexilifera) and globular calcareous sponges (Porosphaera globularis) from the Maastrichtian chalk and Danian limestone of eastern Denmark. Trypanites mobilis was originally described as...

During the Triassic, Batrachia diverged into ancestors of frogs (Salientia) and sala-manders (Caudata). Fossils of Triassic batrachians are rare and found only in a few outcrops, such as the Middle Sakamena Formation of Madagascar (Induan). Only three Triassic taxa have been described, the two early frogs Triadobatrachus and Czatkiobatrachus and th...

The Late Triassic (Norian) outcrops of the Malmros Klint Formation, Jameson Land (Greenland) have yielded numerous specimens of non-sauropod sauropodomorphs. Relevant fossils were briefly reported in 1994 and were assigned to Plateosaurus trossingensis. However, continuous new findings of early non-sauropod sauropodomorphs around the globe facilita...

The Kap Stewart Group (Rhaetian-Sinemurian, Triassic–Early Jurassic) of the Jameson Land Basin in central East Greenland has traditionally been regarded as a strictly continental unit with delta and perennial lake sediments. New finds of plesiosaur bone remain in a thin storm deposited sandstone bed in the middle part of the Rhætelv Formation of th...

A large, well-preserved vertebrate coprolite was found in a lacustrine sediment in the Malmros Klint Formation of the Late Triassic Fleming Fjord Group in the Jameson Land Basin, central East Greenland. The size and internal and external morphology of the coprolite is consistent with that of crocodilian coprolites and one end of the coprolite exhib...

Two mosasaur tooth crowns collected from the Maastrichtian chalk sequences of Stevns Klint and Møns Klint are here assigned to Prognathodon, a mosasaur genus hitherto unknown from Denmark. Together with previous records of the mosasaurs Plioplatecarpus, Mosasaurus and Carinodens, these new finds of Prognathodon document the coexistence of four mosa...

The ichnofossil Lepidenteron provides a unique taphonomic window into the life habits of a tube-dwelling predator, probably an eunicid polychaete, and its fish prey. Here we describe a new tube-like ichnofossil Lepidenteron mortenseni n. isp. from the Kerteminde Marl (100–150 m palaeo-water depth) from the Gundstrup gravel pit near Odense, Fyn, Den...

Two new small tridactyl dinosaur tracks are found in the Middle Jurassic Bagå Formation of Bornholm and are interpreted as ornithopodian in origin. A skeletal fragment is identified as a crocodilian skull fragment. Previous finds of dinosaur tracks from the locality consist of two sizes of sauropods, a medium sized theropod and thyreophorans. The a...

The lithostratigraphy of the Triassic deposits of the Jameson Land Basin in central East Greenland is revised. The new Scoresby Land Supergroup is now composed of the Wordie Creek, Pingo Dal, Gipsdalen and Fleming Fjord Groups. This paper only deals with the lithostratigraphy of the late Early-Late Triassic continental deposits of the latter three...

The lithostratigraphy of the Triassic deposits of the Jameson Land Basin in central East Greenland is revised. The new Scoresby Land Supergroup is now composed of the Wordie Creek, Pingo Dal, Gipsdalen and Fleming Fjord Groups. This paper only deals with the lithostratigraphy of the late Early-Late Triassic continental deposits of the latter three...

Many tracemakers use different materials to line their burrows. Koptichnus rasmussenae n. igen. n. isp. is lined with cuboid fragments of siliceous sponges, interpreted as evidence of harvesting and trimming material to reinforce the burrow wall. The act of trimming, as evidenced in the polyhedral faces, is considered to be behaviourally significan...

An insect boring of unique shape is described from a lignitic layer within the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Skyttegård Member of the Rabekke Formation on Bornholm. Morphologically it cannot be compared to any modern or fossil wood borings, although some structures are reminiscent of Scolytidae, Platypodidae and Lymexylonidae. Most probably, howeve...

Als während der Späten Kreidezeit auf dem Land die Dinosaurier herrschten, waren im Meer die Mosasaurier die Top-räuber. Ein Zahnfund von Stevns Klint be-weist, dass es in Dänemark kurz vor Ende der Kreidezeit drei Gattungen dieser Mee-resungeheuer gab. Aus der Maastrichter Gegend sind in den letzten Jahren mehrere Teilskelette gefunden worden, die...

A well-preserved vertebrate coprolite is reported from the Middle Danian Faxe Formation of Faxe quarry, Denmark. The coprolite differs from earlier reported coprolites from Faxe in being heteropolar and microspiral in morphology, with a short posterior spire and a blunt anterior termination. The morphology is similar to Daniacopros hofstedtae Milàn...

2018. Two new finds of turtle remains from the Danian and Selandian (Paleocene) deposits of Denmark with evidence of predation by crocodilians and sharks. Two new fragments of a turtle carapace and a turtle plastron (hypoplastron) have been recovered from glacially transported boulders of Danian and Selandian age. The hypoplastron is identified as...

A large, well-preserved vertebrate coprolite found in the clay pit Sofienlund Lergrav, Jylland, is identified as crocodilian due to its size and morphology. The coprolite consists of several concentric layers wrapped around a more homogeneous core. Weak constriction marks are present on the surface. Di-noflagellate cyst contents of the coprolite in...

The question about what caused the big mass extinction 66 million years ago that caused the non-avian dinosaurs to go extinct has been the topic of a heated scientific debate. a debate that got so heated that it deserved its own song. Arranged and performed by Skolopendar, with lyrics by Jesper Milàn.

The fossil record of post-Paleozoic lungfishes in Greenland is currently restricted to a few brief reports of isolated and undetermined tooth plates coming from the uppermost Fleming Fjord Formation (late Norian) in Jameson Land, central East Greenland. Here, we describe Ceratodus tunuensis, sp. nov., a new dipnoan from a thin bed of calcareous lak...

This article presents a synthesis of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic fossil tetrapods from Greenland, including an updated review of the holotypes and a new photographic record of the main specimens. All fossil tetrapods found are from East Greenland, with at least 30 different known taxa: five stem tetrapods (Acanthostega gunnari, Ichthyostega eigili, I....

The collection and dissemination of vertebrate ichnological data is struggling to keep up with techniques that are becoming commonplace in the wider palaeontological field. A standard protocol is required to ensure that data is recorded, presented and archived in a manner that will be useful both to contemporary researchers, and to future generatio...

Milàn, J., Jagt, J.W.M., Lindgren, J. & Schulp, A.S., November 2017. First record of Carinodens (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from the uppermost Maastrichtian of Stevns Klint, Denmark. Alcheringa XX, X–X. ISSN 0311-5518. Here we report on an important addition to the Late Cretaceous fossil record of marine reptiles from Denmark: a tooth crown of the rar...

A new myriacanthid holocephalian is described from the Hasle Formation (probably the Uptonia jamesoni subzone to the Acanthopleuroceras valdani subzone, Early Pliensbachian, Early Jurassic) of Bornholm, Denmark, on the basis of isolated upper posterior (palatine) and lower posterior (man-dibular) tooth plates. Oblidens bornholmensis gen. et sp. nov...

The Late Triassic (Norian–early Rhaetian) Fleming Fjord Formation of central East Greenland preserves a diverse fossil fauna, including both body and trace fossils. Trackways of large quadrupedal archosaurs, although already reported in 1994 and mentioned in subsequent publications, are here described and figured in detail for the first time, based...

East Greenland preserves well-exposed sedimentary basins that, ever since the 18th Century, have been target of paleontological explorations, producing some of the most iconic specimens known in vertebrate paleontology. To-date, at least 28 different taxa of fossil tetrapods are known from Greenland, aged from the Late Devonian to the Cenozoic. [.....

This is the first study of bony fish remains across the K/Pg boundary section at Stevns Klint, Denmark. The studied specimens comprise one partly preserved articulated skeleton, a few isolated bones, and casts from several otolith imprints and voids. As otoliths are aragonitic, the remains are all dissolved. The imprints of the otoliths originate f...

The discovery of Cyclotosaurus naraserluki, a new temnospondyl capitosaur from the late Norian-?early Rhaetian of the Fleming Fjord Formation, has raised paleobiogeographic questions on the affinities of the Late Triassic Greenland biota. This is because Greenland is part of the North American continent but all Cyclotosaurus species are restricted...

A new find is identified as a representative of the subfamily Spinilomatinae, viz. Spiniloma? faxensis sp. nov. The specimen was found as an impression in coral limestone of the early Paleocene (middle Danian) Faxe Formation in the Faxe quarry in Denmark. The genus Spiniloma was until now known exclusively from the Mesozoic of Europe. The new find...

GeoCenter Møns Klint 2016 Dinosaur Expedition to the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic Jameson Land Basin, Greenland.

The vertebrate fauna in the Danian deposits of Denmark and southern Sweden is reviewed. Remains of sharks and bony fishes are widely distributed but not common in the Danian limestones, with the exception of the K/Pg-boundary clay, the Fiskeler Member, at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Stevns Klint, which can include substantial quantities of shark...

Two dorsal vertebrae and one dorsal rib were collected at a mountain ridge in the Kap Stewart Formation at Carlsberg Fjord, near Lepidopteris Elv, at Jameson Land, East Greenland, during the 2012 and 2016 Geocenter Møns Klint Dinosaur Expeditions. The Kap Stewart Formation is Rhaetian to Sinemurian in age, and the bones were found in the middle of...

A single slab with Late Palaeozoic tetrapod footprints from East Greenland has been housed at the Natural History Museum of Denmark for decades without scientific notice. The specimen comes from the Mesters Vig Formation of northern Scoresby Land in East Greenland and contains a monospecific assemblage of tetrapod footprints that we assign to Limno...

The Norian-Rhaetian Fleming Fjord Formation (lacustrine and fluvial deposits) in the Jameson Land Basin (East Greenland) is rich in vertebrate fossils, recording all main groups of vertebrates known from the Late Triassic. Fishes, amphibians, a plethora of reptilians (including Testudines, Aetosauria, Phytosauria, Pterosauria, and Dinosauria), and...

The Mesozoic biotas of Scandinavia have been studied for nearly two centuries. However, the last 15 years have witnessed an explosive advance in research, most notably on the richly fossiliferous Triassic (Olenekian-Carnian) and Jurassic (Tithonian) Lagerstätten of the Norwegian Arctic Svalbard archipelago, Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Kristianstad...

The Ørsted Dal Member of the Upper Triassic Fleming Fjord Formation in East Greenland is well known for its rich vertebrate fauna, represented by numerous specimens of both body and ichnofossils. In particular, the footprints of theropod dinosaurs have been described. Recently, an international expedition discovered several slabs with 100 small chi...

A large collection of vertebrate coprolites from black lacustrine shales in the Late Triassic (Rhaetian–Sinemurian) Kap Stewart Formation, East Greenland is examined with regard to internal and external morphology, prey inclusions, and possible relationships to the contemporary vertebrate fauna. A number of the coprolites were mineralogically exami...

In Late Triassic (Norian-Rhaetian) times, the Jameson Land Basin lay at 408 N on the northern part of the supercontinent Pangaea. This position placed the basin in a transition zone between the relatively dry interior of the supercontinent and its more humid periphery. Sedimentation in the Jameson Land Basin took place in a lake-mudflat system and...

The newly discovered White Mesa tracksite in the Burro Canyon Formation represents a snapshot of a diverse, Lower Cretaceous dinosaur fauna from south-eastern Utah. The tracks were found at a construction site where the sandstone had been bulldozed and broken up. All tracks were found as deep, well-preserved natural casts on the underside of the sa...

A cliff exposure of the Eocene Lillebælt Clay Formation, on the Røsnæs peninsula of Zealand, Denmark, has yielded a diverse trace-fossil assemblage. The trace fossils are described formally for the first time and assigned to Phymatoderma melvillensis, unnamed clusters of small burrows, Ophiomorpha nodosa, Spongeliomorpha isp., Dreginozoum beckumens...

A well-preserved three-toed footprint, measuring 34 mm in length from a very small predatory dinosaur with an estimated hip height of 153 mm and a total body length around 50 cm including tail, is reported from the type section of the marine Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian), Hasle Formation on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The morp...

In 2005, numerous vertebrate tracks were discovered in carbonate aeolianites in and around the town of Paphos, in the southwestern part of Cyprus. The main track-bearing exposure is located in a protected archaeological site near the Agia Solomoni Church inside the city of Paphos, where cross-sections through tracks are abundant in vertical exposur...

A specimen of the common irregular echinoid Echinocorys sulcata (Goldfuss, 1826), recovered from the lowermost Paleocene Stevns Klint Formation, at Stevns Klint, Denmark, is of note in revealing a perfect external mold of the turriform gastropod Cerithiella fenestrata (Ravn, 1902) in the anal opening. The gastropod penetrated over a length of 21 mm...

A specimen of the common irregular echinoid Echinocorys sulcata (Goldfuss, 1826), recovered from the lowermost Paleocene Stevns Klint Formation, at Stevns Klint, Denmark, is of note in revealing a perfect external mold of the turriform gastropod Cerithiella fenestrata (Ravn, 1902) in the anal opening. The gastropod penetrated over a length of 21 mm...

The first vertebrate coprolite from the Upper Maastrichtian chalk of Denmark is described. The coprolite is 31 mm long, with a maximum diameter of 11 mm. Computed Tomography scanning of the specimen shows / revealed the internal structure to be tightly coiled, suggesting that the coprolite originates from a small shark with an estimated total lengt...