Sundance Formation
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Script error: No such module "check for unknown parameters". The Sundance Formation is a western North American sequence of Middle Jurassic to Upper Jurassic age[1] Dating from the Bathonian to the Oxfordian, around 168-157 Ma, It is up to 100 metres thick[2] and consists of marine shale, sandy shale, sandstone, and limestone deposited in the Sundance Sea, an inland sea that covered large parts of western North America during the Middle and early Late Jurassic.
Geology
The Sundance Formation underlies the western North American Morrison Formation, the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in the Americas, and is separated by a disconformity from the underlying Middle Jurassic Gypsum Springs Formation.
Fossils
The Sundance Formation is known for fossils of an extinct species of marine cephalopod, the belemnite Pachyteuthis densus, as well as several extinct species of oyster, including Deltoideum, Liostrea, and Gryphaea nebrascensis. Other common invertebrates include crinoids, echinoids, gastropods, insects, ostracods, and foraminifera.[3]
Fossil dinosaur 'footprints' on an ancient ocean shoreline are preserved in the formation and protected at the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite, located in the Bureau of Land Management Red Gulch/Alkali National Back Country Byway, near Shell in Big Horn County, Wyoming.[4]
Paleobiota
Vertebrates
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Trace fossils |
A Pteraichnid belonging to the Pterodactyloidea. | |
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Material now lost.[6] |
Possibly a Plesiosaurid Plesiosaur. |
Invertebrates
| Genus | Species | Member | Material | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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A Belemnoid. |
Fish
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Teeth |
Belongs to a group of shark like cartilaginous fish called the Hybodontiformes. This might either be Hybodus or Asteracanthus.[7] Found in association with Tatenectes. |
References
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- ↑ BLM−Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming Office: "Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite" website, info, maps, photo gallery, accessed 8.21.2015
- ↑ a b Lockley, M.; Harris, J.D.; and Mitchell, L. 2008. "A global overview of pterosaur ichnology: tracksite distribution in space and time." Zitteliana. B28. p. 187-198. Template:Catalog lookup linkScript error: No such module "check isxn"..
- ↑ W. R. O'Keete, F. R. and Wahl Current taxonomic status of the plesiosaur Pantosaurus striatus from the Upper Jurassic Sundance Formation, Wyoming, article on pages 37-47 of the complete issue, 2003, Paludicola, 4 (2) : 27-68. Paperback – January 1, 2003
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- Pages with script errors
- Jurassic geology of South Dakota
- Jurassic geology of Wyoming
- Jurassic System of North America
- Upper Jurassic Series
- Geology of the Rocky Mountains
- Geologic formations of Montana
- Geologic formations of Wyoming
- Paleontology in Wyoming
- Middle Jurassic Series
- Bathonian Stage
- Callovian Stage
- Oxfordian Stage
- Shale formations of the United States
- Limestone formations of the United States
- Sandstone formations of the United States