| Bahndwivici Temporal range: Eocene, | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Shinisauridae |
| Genus: | † Bahndwivici Conrad, 2006 |
| Species | |
Bahndwivici is an extinct genus of lizard known from a nearly complete and articulated skeleton discovered in rocks of the Green River Formation of Wyoming, United States. The skeleton is very similar to that of the modern Chinese crocodile lizard, Shinisaurus.
Bahndwicivi is based on FMNH PR2260, a skeleton collected from the Thompson Ranch Locality of the Fossil Butte Member of the Green River Formation. It was described in 2006 by Jack Conrad. The type species is B. ammoskius. The genus name means "handsome in the water" in Shoshoni, a reference both to the animal's possible semiaquatic lifestyle and to the Shoshone people who once lived in the area. The specific name is a combination of the Ancient Greek words for sandy (ammos) and shade (skia), referring to its habitat. [1]
FMNH PR2260 is more or less complete, primarily lacking some bones from the rear of the skull. The skeleton is well-articulated, with numerous rows of osteoderms remaining in place beneath the tail, but is somewhat flattened. The animal appears to have been an adult when it died. It differs from Shinisaurus in a few details. For example, FMNH PR2260 had a proportionally longer snout and an additional tooth in the upper jaw, and its postorbital and postfrontal bones were not fused. [1]
Bahndwivici is one of several lizards known from the Fossil Butte Member of the Green River Formation. This rock unit represents part of Fossil Lake, the smallest and shortest-lived of three prehistoric lake systems that make up the Green River Formation. [2] The lake sediments include a volcanic ash dating to 51.66 million years ago, during the Early Eocene. [2] Fossils are abundant in the rocks of Fossil Lake, and illustrate a diverse assemblage of plants, bivalves, snails, crustaceans, insects, rays, bony fish, salamanders, turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodilians, birds, and mammals. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes in three basins along the present-day Green River in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The sediments are deposited in very fine layers, a dark layer during the growing season and a light-hue inorganic layer in the dry season. Each pair of layers is called a varve and represents one year. The sediments of the Green River Formation present a continuous record of six million years. The mean thickness of a varve here is 0.18 mm, with a minimum thickness of 0.014 mm and maximum of 9.8 mm.
Fossil Butte National Monument is a United States National Monument managed by the National Park Service, located 15 miles (24 km) west of Kemmerer, Wyoming, United States. It centers on an assemblage of Eocene Epoch animal and plant fossils associated with Fossil Lake—the smallest lake of the three great lakes which were then present in what are now Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The other two lakes were Lake Gosiute and Lake Uinta. Fossil Butte National Monument was established as a national monument on October 23, 1972.
Heliobatis is an extinct genus of stingray in the Myliobatiformes family Dasyatidae. At present the genus contains the single species Heliobatis radians.
The Fort Union Formation is a geologic unit containing sandstones, shales, and coal beds in Wyoming, Montana, and parts of adjacent states. In the Powder River Basin, it contains important economic deposits of coal, uranium, and coalbed methane.
Priscacara, is a genus of extinct temperate bass described from Early to Middle Eocene fossils. It is characterized by a sunfish-like body and its stout dorsal and anal spines. The genus is best known from the Green River Formation of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. Mass deaths of Priscacara suggest it formed schools.
Vulpavus is an extinct paraphyletic genus of placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in North America from the early to middle Eocene.
White Mountain is a long mountain located in central Sweetwater County, Wyoming, near the cities of Rock Springs and Green River. The mountain is part of the Green River Formation, and contains communications towers that serve a number of purposes. Hundreds of carved figures also dot the sandstone cliffs at the White Mountain Petroglyph site and range from 200 to 1000 years old. Pilot Butte, located on top of White Mountain, is accessible from roads on the mountain.
Elimia tenera, formerly known as Goniobasis tenera, is an extinct species of freshwater snail with an operculum, in the aquatic gastropod mollusk family Pleuroceridae. This species flourished during the Eocene and is now known only from the fossil record. The genus name Elimia was restored to this species in 1975; formerly it was placed in Goniobasis.
Saniwa is an extinct genus of varanid lizard that lived during the Eocene epoch. It is known from well-preserved fossils found in the Bridger and Green River Formations of Wyoming, United States. The type species S. ensidens was described in 1870 as the first fossil lizard known from North America. A second species, S.orsmaelensis, is recognised from remains found in Europe. It is a close relative of Varanus, the genus that includes monitor lizards.
Afairiguana avius is an extinct iguanid lizard known from a nearly complete and articulated skeleton discovered in rocks of the Early Eocene-aged Green River Formation of Wyoming, United States. As of the initial description, the skeleton represents the oldest complete iguanian from the Western Hemisphere, and is the oldest representative of the extant iguanid family of anoles, Polychrotidae.
Paleontology in Wyoming includes research into the prehistoric life of the U.S. state of Wyoming as well as investigations conducted by Wyomingite researchers and institutions into ancient life occurring elsewhere.
The Willwood Formation is a sedimentary sequence deposited during the late Paleocene to early Eocene, or Clarkforkian, Wasatchian and Bridgerian in the NALMA classification.
The Wasatch Formation (Tw) is an extensive highly fossiliferous geologic formation stretching across several basins in Idaho, Montana Wyoming, Utah and western Colorado. It preserves fossils dating back to the Early Eocene period. The formation defines the Wasatchian or Lostcabinian, a period of time used within the NALMA classification, but the formation ranges in age from the Clarkforkian to Bridgerian.
The Washakie Formation is a geologic formation in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming. It preserves many mammal, bird, reptile and other fossils dating back to the Lutetian stage of the Eocene within the Paleogene period. The sediments fall in the Bridgerian and Uintan stages of the NALMA classification.
The Bridger Formation is a geologic formation in southwestern Wyoming. It preserves fossils dating back to the Bridgerian and Uintan stages of the Paleogene Period. The formation was named by American geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden for Fort Bridger, which had itself been named for mountain man Jim Bridger. The Bridger Wilderness covers much of the Bridger Formation's area.
The San Jose Formation is an Early Eocene geologic formation in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and Colorado.
Viverravus is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct subfamily Viverravinae within extinct family Viverravidae, that lived in North America, Europe and Asia from the middle Paleocene to middle Eocene.
Coniophis is an extinct genus of snakes from the late Cretaceous period. The type species, Coniophis precedes, was about 7 cm long and had snake-like teeth and body form, with a skull and a largely lizard-like bone structure. It probably ate small vertebrates. The fossil remains of Coniophis were first discovered at the end of the 19th century in the Lance Formation of the US state of Wyoming, and were described in 1892 by Othniel Charles Marsh. For the genus Coniophis, a number of other species have been described. Their affiliation is, however, poorly secured, mostly based on vertebrae descriptions from only a few fossils.
The geology of Wyoming includes some of the oldest Archean rocks in North America, overlain by thick marine and terrestrial sediments formed during the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic, including oil, gas and coal deposits. Throughout its geologic history, Wyoming has been uplifted several times during the formation of the Rocky Mountains, which produced complicated faulting that traps hydrocarbons.
Protictis is an extinct paraphyletic genus of placental mammals from extinct subfamily Didymictinae within extinct family Viverravidae, that lived in North America from early Paleocene to middle Eocene.
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