Projects per year
Abstract
The Navajo, Nugget and other Lower Jurassic sandstones represent part of the world’s largest Meso-zoic sandy desert system. Navajo Sandstone outcrops are well-known and well-exposed in southern Utah and northern Arizona, where almost all significant vertebrate body fossils from this unit originate. Vertebrate ichnofaunas are also abundant in this region, although few sites are documented in great detail. By contrast, known sites to the north, in northwestern Colorado, northeastern Utah, southeastern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming, where the term Nugget Sandstone is used, are more widely scattered and, until very recently, have produced no significant body fossils. Nevertheless, the northern sites are historically important, and contribute substantially to our understanding of the ichnofaunas. We give a preliminary account of a Lower Jurassic ichnofauna from the Nugget Sandstone of southeastern Idaho excavated in 2005 through 2008. The ichnofauna includes a large sample of vertebrate and invertebrate traces attributed to dinosaurs, mammals or mammal-like (mammaloid or therapsid)species and various arthropods. Identified ichnogenera include
Grallator, Otozoum, Batrachopus, Brasilichnium,Octopodichnus, Paleohelcura
and
Diplichnites
. The ichnofauna is important because it reveals some of the smallest and best preserved mammaloid tracks ever reported from the Jurassic. In addition, the diversity and quality of preservation of the invertebrate traces is exceptional in comparison with other known localities.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Fossil record 3 |
Editors | Robert M. Sullivan, Spencer G. Lucas, Justin A. Spielmann |
Place of Publication | Albuquerque |
Publisher | New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science |
Pages | 344-356 |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Publication series
Name | Bulletin |
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Publisher | New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science |
Volume | 53 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'Footprints and invertebrate traces from a new site in the Nugget Sandstone (Lower Jurassic) of Idaho: implications for life in the northern reaches of the Great Navajo-Nugget Erg System in the western USA'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
-
The evolution of animal behaviour, ecospace utilization and continental ecosystem engineering through the Palaeozoic
Minter, N. (PI)
13/09/10 → 12/09/11
Project: Research