Kaiparowits Formation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kaiparowits Formation
Stratigraphic range: Upper Cretaceous
Type Geological formation

The Kaiparowits Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in the Kaiparowits Plateau in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, in the southern part of Utah in the western United States. It is over 2800 feet (850 m) thick, and is Campanian in age. This Upper Cretaceous formation was formed from alluvial floodplains of large rivers in coastal southern Laramidia; sandstone beds are the deposit of rivers, and mudstone beds represent floodplain deposits. It is fossiliferous, with most specimens from the lower half of the formation, but exploration is only comparatively recent, with most work being done since 1982. It has been estimated that less than 10% of the Kaiparowits formation has been explored for fossils. Most fieldwork has been conducted by The Natural History Museum of Utah.

Paleofauna

Animals present include chondrichthyans (sharks and rays), gars, bowfin, sturgeons, frogs, salamanders, turtles, lizards, crocodilians, coelurosaurian theropods such as dromaeosaurids, troodontids, and Ornithomimus velox, armored dinosaurs, the duckbill Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus, and a variety of early mammals including multituberculates, marsupials, and insectivorans.[1] Recent finds include large specimens of the duckbill Gryposaurus,[2] including the new species G. monumentensis,[2] and the first described remains of the oviraptorosaurian Hagryphus giganteus.[3]

Trace fossils are also known from the Kaiparowits, including an excellently preserved hadrosaur skin impression known from a recent analysis by Herrero and Farke.[4]

Ornithischians

Color key
Taxon Reclassified taxon Taxon falsely reported as present Dubious taxon or junior synonym Ichnotaxon Ootaxon Morphotaxon
 Notes
Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; crossed out taxa are discredited.
Ornithischians reported from the Kaiparowits Formation
Genus Species Location Stratigraphic position Material Notes Images

Euoplocephalus[5]

Indeterminate[5]
Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus
Undescribed ornithopod

Gryposaurus[6]

G. monumentensis[6]

A saurolophine

Parasaurolophus[5]

P. cyrtocristatus[5]

A lambeosaurine

Stegoceras[5]

Indeterminate[5]

Triceratops[7]

Indeterminate[7]

Nasutoceratops[8]

N. titusi

middle unit of the upper Kaiparowits Formation

A centrosaurine

Kosmoceratops[9]

K. richardsoni

A chasmosaurine

Utahceratops[9]

U. gettyi

A chasmosaurine

Theropods

Color key
Taxon Reclassified taxon Taxon falsely reported as present Dubious taxon or junior synonym Ichnotaxon Ootaxon Morphotaxon
 Notes
Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; crossed out taxa are discredited.
Theropods reported from the Kaiparowits Formation
Genus Species Location Stratigraphic position Material Notes Images

Albertosaurus[10]

Indeterminate[10]
Teratophoneus curriei

Avisaurus[5]

Unnamed[5]

A enantiornithine

Hagryphus[6]

H. giganteus[6]

An elmisaurine

Ornithomimus?[5][11]

O. velox?[5][11]

Probably not referable to Ornithomimus.[11]

Paronychodon[12]

Indeterminate[12]

Ricardoestesia[13]

Indeterminate[13]

Talos[6]

T. sampsoni[6]

A troodontid

Teratophoneus[14]

T. curriei

A tyrannosaurid

Troodon[5]

Indeterminate[5]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Eaton, Jeffrey G.; Cifelli, Richard L.; Hutchinson, J. Howard; Kirkland, James I.; and Parrish, J. Michael (1999). "Cretaceous vertebrate faunas from the Kaiparowits Plateau, south-central Utah". In Gillete, David D. (ed.). Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah. Miscellaneous Publication 99-1. Salt Lake City: Utah Geological Survey. pp. 345–353. ISBN 1-55791-634-9. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gates, Terry; and Sampson, Scott (2006). "A new species of Gryposaurus (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae) from the Upper Campanian Kaiparowits Formation of Utah". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26 (3, Suppl.): 65A. 
  3. ↑ Zanno, Lindsay E.; and Sampson, Scott D. (2005). "A new oviraptorosaur (Theropoda; Maniraptora) from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Utah". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25 (4): 897–904. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0897:ANOTMF]2.0.CO;2. 
  4. ↑ Herrero, Lucia and Farke, Andrew A. 2010. Hadrosaurid Dinosaur Skin Impressions from the Upper Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation of Southern Utah, USA. – Palarch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 7(2) (2010), 1-7. ISSN 1567-2158.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11 "3.1 Utah, United States; 12. Kaiparowits Formation," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Pages 579-580.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Lindsay E. Zanno, David J. Varricchio, Patrick M. O'Connor, Alan L. Titus and Michael J. Knell (2011). "A new troodontid theropod, Talos sampsoni gen. et sp. nov., from the Upper Cretaceous Western Interior Basin of North America". PLoS ONE. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Listed as "cf. Triceratops sp." in "3.1 Utah, United States; 12. Kaiparowits Formation," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 580.
  8. ↑ "Sampson SD, Lund EK, Loewen MA, Farke AA, Clayton KE. (2013) A remarkable short-snouted horned dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (late Campanian) of southern Laramidia. Proc R Soc B 280: 20131186.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "New Horned Dinosaurs of Utah Provide Evidence for Intracontinental Dinosaur Endemism" in Sampson, et al. (2010)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Listed as "?Albertosaurus sp." in "3.1 Utah, United States; 12. Kaiparowits Formation," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 579.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Zanno, L.E., Weirsma, J.P., Loewen, M.A., Sampson, S.D. and Getty, M.A. (2010). A preliminary report on the theropod dinosaur fauna of the late Campanian Kaiparowits Formation, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah." Learning from the Land Symposium: Geology and Paleontology. Washington, DC: Bureau of Land Management.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Listed as "cf. Paronychodon sp." in "3.1 Utah, United States; 12. Kaiparowits Formation," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 579.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Listed as "cf. Ricardoestesia sp." in "3.1 Utah, United States; 12. Kaiparowits Formation," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 579.
  14. ↑ Thomas D. Carr, Thomas E. Williamson, Brooks B. Britt and Ken Stadtman (2011). "Evidence for high taxonomic and morphologic tyrannosauroid diversity in the Late Cretaceous (Late Campanian) of the American Southwest and a new short-skulled tyrannosaurid from the Kaiparowits formation of Utah". Naturwissenschaften 98 (3): 241–246. Bibcode:2011NW.....98..241C. doi:10.1007/s00114-011-0762-7. PMID 21253683. 

References

  • Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. 861 pp. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.

Coordinates: 37°37′19″N 111°39′54″W / 37.62194°N 111.66500°W / 37.62194; -111.66500


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.