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

Martin G. Lockley, Allen R. Tedrow, Kent C. Chamberlain, Nicholas J. Minter, Jong-Deock Lim

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

    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 languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationFossil record 3
    EditorsRobert M. Sullivan, Spencer G. Lucas, Justin A. Spielmann
    Place of PublicationAlbuquerque
    PublisherNew Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science
    Pages344-356
    Publication statusPublished - 2011

    Publication series

    NameBulletin
    PublisherNew Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
    Volume53

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