Paleobiogeographic Range Maps of Select Baculites Species of the Late Campanian Western Interior Seaway

Paleobiogeographic range maps have been used in a variety of paleontological studies, particularly for attempting to better understand the paleoecology, paleoclimate, or paleoenvironment of a given area, such as the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway of North America. These ranges, however, are not often created for the sake of plotting out an organism's distribution within the Seaway. The research herein creates maps showing range distributions for five species of Baculites, a genus of extinct ammonites. Publicly available online data was used to generate maps of the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Campanian with available baculite locality data in ArcGIS Pro. These maps were rotated to their reconstructed paleogeography using PaleoGIS Pro extension software, and the ranges were measured for area, latitudinal extent, and longitudinal extent to compare and contrast distribution in addition to visualizing each species' range. It is the hope that these maps can aid in other research on Baculites, by either augmenting or acting as a starting place, as well as potentially being used in conjunction with exhibit materials to help improve public education.