Allaru Formation

Allaru Formation
Stratigraphic range: Albian ~112–100  Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Type	Geological formation
Unit of	Rolling Downs Group
Underlies	Mackunda Formation
Overlies	Toolebuc Formation
Thickness	Up to 700 m (2,300 ft)
Lithology
Primary	Mudstone
Other	Siltstone, sandstone, limestone
Location
Coordinates	24°52′02.17″S146°14′19.85″E / 24.8672694°S 146.2388472°E / -24.8672694; 146.2388472
Approximate paleocoordinates	51°00′S133°06′E / 51.0°S 133.1°E / -51.0; 133.1
Region	Queensland
Country	Australia
Extent	Eromanga Basin
Allaru Formation (Australia) Show map of Australia Allaru Formation (Queensland) Show map of Queensland

The Allaru Formation, also known as the Allaru Mudstone, is a geological formation in Queensland, Australia, whose strata date back to the Early Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. ^[1]

Fossil content

Possible indeterminate ankylosaur remains are present in Queensland. Indeterminate ornithopod remains are present in Queensland. ^[1]

Archosaurs

Dinosaurs

Genus	Species	Location	Material	Notes	Images
Austrosaurus	A. mckillopi	Queensland	"Doral vertebrae [and possible] incomplete limb remains from several individuals" [2]	A Somphospondyli sauropod. [1]
Kunbarrasaurus	K. ieversi	Queensland		A parankylosaur. [1] [3]
?Muttaburrasaurus	?M. sp.	Queensland		[1]

Reptiles

Genus	Species	Location	Material	Notes	Images
Elasmosauridae	Indeterminate		Specimen number QMF2100, an articulated torso. Stomach cavity contains crustacean and fish remains as well as ~135 gastroliths. [4]	[4]
Notochelone	N. costata			[5]
Platypterygius	P. australis (=longmani)			[5]

Fish

Genus	Species	Location	Material	Notes	Images
Cooyoo	C. australis	Queensland		[6]
Flindersichthys	F. denmeadi			[7]
Pachyrhizodus	P. marathonensis, P. grawi			Two species known from both this and the Toolebuc Formation [8]
Richmondichthys	R. sweeti			An aspidorhynchid also found in the Toolebuc Formation [9]

Invertebrates

Genus	Species	Location	Material	Notes	Images
Eromangateuthis	E. soniae	Queensland	"Gladius"	[2]
Goodhallites	G. goodhalli			[10]
Inoceramus	I. sutherlandi	Queensland		[11]
Mckenziephyllia	M. accordensis			[12]

See also

• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
  • Winton Formation
• Paja Formation, contemporaneous Lagerstätte in Colombia
• Sierra Madre Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of Mexico
• Santana Group, contemporaneous Lagerstätte in northeastern Brazil
  • Crato Formation
  • Romualdo Formation
• South Polar region of the Cretaceous

References

1. Weishampel et al., 2004, pp.573-574
2. Fuchs, Dirk (2019). "Eromangateuthis N. Gen., a New Genus for a Late Albian Gladius-Bearing Giant Octobrachian (Cephalopoda: Coleoidea)". Paleontological Contributions. 2019 (21): 1–3. doi: 10.17161/1808.29619 . hdl: 1808/29619 . ISSN   1946-0279. S2CID   204976334.
3. Leahey et al., 2015
4. Colin R. McHenry; Alex G. Cook; Stephen Wroe (November 2005). "Bottom-Feeding Plesiosaurs". Science. 310 (5745): 75. doi:10.1126/science.1117241. PMID   16210529. S2CID   28832109 – via ResearchGate.
5. Kear, Benjamin P. (June 2003). "Cretaceous marine reptiles of Australia: A review of taxonomy and distribution". Cretaceous Research. 24 (3): 277–303. Bibcode:2003CrRes..24..277K. doi:10.1016/S0195-6671(03)00046-6 – via ResearchGate.
6. Lovisa Wretman; Benjamin P. Kear (April 2014). "Bite marks on an ichthyodectiform fish from Australia: Possible evidence of trophic interaction in an Early Cretaceous marine ecosystem". Alcheringa. 38 (2): 170–176. Bibcode:2014Alch...38..170W. doi:10.1080/03115518.2014.848692. S2CID   140194963 – via ResearchGate.
7. Bartholomai, A. (2010). "Revision of Flindersichthys denmeadi Longman 1932, a marine teleost from the Lower Cretaceous of the Great Artesian Basin, Queensland". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. S2CID   189970876.
8. Bartholomai, A. (17 February 2012). "The pachyrhizodontid teleosts from the marine Lower Cretaceous (latest mid to late Albian) sediments of the Eromanga Basin, Queensland, Australia". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature. 56 (1): 119–148.
9. Bartholomai, A. (2004). "The large aspidorhynchid fish, Richmondichthys sweeti (Etheridge Jnr and Smith Woodward, 1891) from Albian Marine deposits of Queensland, Australia". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. S2CID   195531265.
10. R.A. Henderson; W.J. Kennedy (2002). "Occurrence of the ammonite Goodhallites goodhalli (J. Sowerby) in the Eromanga Basin, Queensland: an index species for the late Albian (Cretaceous)". Alcheringa. 26 (2): 233–247. Bibcode:2002Alch...26..233H. doi:10.1080/03115510208619254. S2CID   130589426 – via ResearchGate.
11. Patrick Mark Smith; Timothy Holland (July 2016). "Cretaceous time capsules: remarkable preservation of fish and crustaceans inside the bivalve Inoceramus sutherlandi McCoy, 1865 from the Allaru Mudstone (late Albian), Eromanga Basin, Queensland". ResearchGate. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2264.9842 .
12. John S. Jell; Alex G. Cook; Peter A. Jell (2010). "Australian Cretaceous Cnidaria and Porifera". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 35 (2): 241–284. doi:10.1080/03115518.2011.532322. S2CID   129707733.

Bibliography

• Leahey, Lucy G.; Molnar, Ralph E.; Carpenter, Kenneth; Witmer, Lawrence M.; Salisbury, Steven W. (2015). "Cranial osteology of the ankylosaurian dinosaur formerly known as Minmi sp. (Ornithischia: Thyreophora) from the Lower Cretaceous Allaru Mudstone of Richmond, Queensland, Australia". PeerJ . 3: e1475. doi: 10.7717/peerj.1475 . PMC   4675105 . PMID   26664806.
• Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka, eds. (2004). The Dinosauria, 2nd edition. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 1–880. ISBN   0-520-24209-2 . Retrieved 2019-02-21.