Also known as Antsiranana

Where: Antsiranana, Madagascar (13.8° S, 49.5° E: paleocoordinates 33.4° S, 40.4° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Ambolafotsy Formation, Turonian (93.9 - 89.8 Ma)

• The middle, terrestrial unit of the "Ambolafotsy Formation", Turonian in age.

•The section containing the Dahalokely site is informally termed the "Ambolafotsy Formation" and is divided into lower, middle (containing the type locality; Figure 1), and upper units [23]. The lower unit has produced several biostratigraphically informative foraminifera, including Whiteinella aprica, W. baltica, Helvetoglobotruncana praehelvetica, and H. helvetica, and the nannofossil Quadrum gartneri [23,25], placing the sample within the Q. gartneri and H. helvetica zones [25]. Relevant biostratigraphic zones and ranges were sourced from Ogg and Lugowski [28], which draws upon data from other published resources (particularly references within [29]), recalibrated to the Geologic Time Scale 2012 [30]. Helvetoglobotruncana helvetica is the most informative of the foraminifera, defining a zone within the latter part of the early Turonian (,93.52–92.99 Ma). The earliest occurrence of Q. gartneri is during the second half of the early Turonian (93.55 Ma), and it persisted into the late Coniacian (,86.44 Ma). Thus, the co-occurrence of these two species suggests that the sediments of the lower unit were deposited during the latter part of the early Turonian (93.52–92.99 Ma). The upper unit contains the ammonite Subprionocyclus neptuni [23,24], a taxon restricted to the late Turonian (90.86–89.77 Ma). Because no biostratigraphically informative microfossils are known from the middle unit yet, these terrestrial deposits may have overlapped temporally with some of the marine biozones. Even so, this biostratigraphic evidence restricts the age of the type locality for Dahalokely to the interval including the latter part of the early Turonian through the late Turonian (93.52– 89.77 Ma).

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; carbonaceous claystone and sandstone

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by Farke & Sertich in 2007

Collection methods: surface (in situ),

• Permanent collection at the University of Antananarivo (UA; Antananarivo, Madagascar).

•The specimen was discovered in situ in the field in northernmost Madagascar (Figure 1) during the 2007 field season.

•All necessary permits were obtained for the described study, which complied with all relevant regulations. Fieldwork was conducted under permit from Ministe`re des Mines de Madagascar and in collaboration with the Ministere de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique de Madagascar.

Primary reference: A. A. Farke and J. J. W. Sertich. 2013. An abelisauroid theropod dinosaur from the Turonian of Madagascar. PLoS ONE 8(4):e62047:1-18 [R. Benson/R. Benson/M. Carrano]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 143113: authorized by Roger Benson, entered by Roger Benson on 19.04.2013

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)