Continental fossil vertebrates from the mid-Cretaceous (Albian-Cenomanian) Alcântara Formation, Brazil, and their relationship with contemporaneous faunas from North Africa

► We present a complete description of the most diverse middle Cretaceous vertebrate fauna from South America. ► A comparison with coeval vertebrate assemblages reported from northern South America and North Africa (including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Niger), support a subaerial connection linking northeastern Brazil and western Africa active up to the Albian. ► The vast majority of terrestrial taxa reported from the northern South America-North Africa assemblage are not represented in the coeval southern South American assemblages, suggesting the presence of latitudinal (environmental, morphological, or geographical) barriers within South America at this time.