The Williams Fork Formation is a Campanian to Maastrichtian (Edmontonian) geologic formation of the Mesaverde Group in Colorado. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, most notably Pentaceratops sternbergii,[1]. Other fossils found in the formation are the ammonite Lewyites, tyrannosaurids, dromaeosaurids, troodontids, nodosaurids, ankylosaurids, hadrosaurids, hybodonts, neosuchian crocodylomorphs, and the mammals Glasbius and Meniscoessus collomensis.[2][3]
| Williams Fork Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Campanian (Edmontonian) ~ | |
| Type | Geological formation |
| Unit of | Mesaverde Group |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Mudstone |
| Other | Sandstone |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 40°00′N 108°48′W / 40.0°N 108.8°W |
| Approximate paleocoordinates | 47°30′N 80°18′W / 47.5°N 80.3°W |
| Region | Colorado |
| Country |  United States |
  Williams Fork Formation (the United States)  Williams Fork Formation (Colorado) | |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Diem, Steve; Archibald, James D. (2005). "Range extension of southern chasmosaurine Ceratopsian dinosaurs into northwestern Colorado". Journal of Paleontology. 79 (2): 251–258. Bibcode:2005JPal...79..251D. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.538.7263. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079<0251:REOSCC>2.0.CO;2. S2CID 17715685. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- ^ Jubb Creek at Fossilworks.org
- ^ Rangely South (SDNHM) at Fossilworks.org
Bibliography
edit- Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka, eds. (2004). The Dinosauria (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 1–880. ISBN 0-520-24209-2. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
- Diem, Stephen Daniel. (1999). Vertebrate Faunal Analysis of the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation, Rio Blanco County, Colorado [Master’s Thesis]. San Diego State University.
Further reading
edit- Archibald, J. D. (1987). Late Cretaceous (Judithian and Edmontonian) Vertebrates and Geology of the Williams Fork Formation. N.W. Colorado. In P. J. Currie, E. H. Koster, & Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (Eds.), Fourth Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems: Drumheller, August 10-14, 1987: Short Papers (Rev. ed, pp. 7–11). Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
- Brand, N., Heckert, A., Sanchez, I., Foster, J., Hunt-Foster, R., & Eberle, J. (2022). New Upper Cretaceous Microvertebrate Assemblage from the Williams Fork Formation, northwestern Colorado, U.S.A., and its Paleoenvironmental Implications. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 67(3), 579–600. https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00934.2021.
- Cifelli, R. L., Eberle, J. J., Lofgren, D. L., Lillegraven, J. A., & Clemens, W. A. (2004). Mammalian Biochronology of the Latest Cretaceous. In M. O. Woodburne (Ed.), Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Biostratigraphy and Geochronology (pp. 21–42). Columbia University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/wood13040.8.
- Diem, Stephen Daniel. (1999). Vertebrate Faunal Analysis of the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation, Rio Blanco County, Colorado [Master’s Thesis]. San Diego State University.
- Noll, M. D. (1998). Sedimentology of the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation, Rio Blanco County, Northwestern Colorado [Master’s Thesis]. San Diego State University. https://digitallibrary.sdsu.edu/islandora/object/sdsu%3A17
- J. R. Foster and R. K. Hunt-Foster. 2015. First report of a giant neosuchian (Crocodyliformes) in the Williams Fork Formation (Upper Cretaceous: Campanian) of Colorado. Cretaceous Research 55:66-73
- Lockley, M. G., Smith, J. A., & King, M. R. (2018). First reports of turtle tracks from the Williams Fork Formation (‘Mesaverde’ Group), Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) of western Colorado. Cretaceous Research, 84, 474–482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2017.11.001.
- W. J. Kennedy, W. A. Cobban, and G. R. Scott. 2000. Heteromorph ammonites from the Upper Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) Baculites cuneatus and Baculites reesidei zones of the Pierre Shale in Colorado, USA. Acta Geologica Polonica 50:1-20
- J. A. Lillegraven. 1987. Stratigraphic and evolutionary implications of a new species of Meniscoessus (Multituberculata, Mammalia) from the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation, Moffat County, Colorado. Dakoterra 3:46-56
- Sullivan, R.M., and Lucas, S.G. 2006. "The Kirtlandian land-vertebrate "age" – faunal composition, temporal position and biostratigraphic correlation in the nonmarine Upper Cretaceous of western North America." New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Bulletin 35:7-29.