Javelina Formation

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Javelina Formation
Stratigraphic range: Maastrichtian, 70–66.5  Ma
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Javelina Formation by Nick Longrich.jpg
Distinctive mauve and red beds of the Javelina Formation outcropping in Big Bend National Park, Texas
Type Geological formation
Unit of Tornillo Group
Underlies Black Peaks Formation
Overlies Aguja Formation
Lithology
Primary Sandstone
Other Claystone, mudstone, siltstone, conglomerate
Location
Coordinates 29°18′N103°24′W / 29.3°N 103.4°W / 29.3; -103.4
Approximate paleocoordinates 36°00′N82°48′W / 36.0°N 82.8°W / 36.0; -82.8
RegionFlag of Texas.svg  Texas
CountryFlag of the United States.svg  USA
Type section
Named for Javelina
Usa edcp relief location map.png
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Javelina Formation (the United States)
Relief map of Texas.png
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Javelina Formation (Texas)

The Javelina Formation is a geological formation in Texas. Dating has shown that the strata date to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, approximately 70 to 66.5 million years old. [1] The middle part of the formation has been dated to about 69 million years ago plus or minus 1 million years and the top situated near the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (in the overlying Black Peaks Formation [1] ), dated to 66 Ma ago. [2] Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. [3]

Contents

Age

The typical age range of the Javelina Formation has been difficult to determine. [4] Only one geological site in the Javelina Formation has thus far yielded the correct rock types for radiometric dating. The outcrop, situated in the middle strata of the formation about 90 meters below the K-Pg boundary and within the local range of Alamosaurus fossils and below two sites that have yielded Quetzalcoatlus fossils, was dated to 69.0 plus or minus 0.9 million years old in 2010. [2] Indeterminate chasmosaurinae fossils have also been as well. [5]

Fossil content

Vertebrate paleofauna

Vertebrates of the Javelina Formation
GenusSpeciesLocationStratigraphic positionMaterialNotesImages
Alamosaurus A. sanjuanensisA titanosaurian sauropod, also from the Ojo Alamo Formation
Alamosaurus-sanjuanensis.jpg
Bravoceratops B. polyphemusA chasmosaurine ceratopsid known from the lowermost part of the Javelina Formation which dates back to the early Maastrichtian. [6]
Bravoceratops NT small.jpg
Dasyatis [7] UnknownA ray
Common stingray tynemouth.jpg
Gryposaurus? [8] G.? alsatei [8] A saurolophine hadrosaurid known from the Two Medicine Formation, the Dinosaur Park Formation, the Kaiparowits Formation, possible remains have also been unearthed in the El Picacho Formation. [9]
Gryposaurus%3F alstasei profile reconstruction.jpg
Kritosaurus [8] [10] K. cf. navajovius [8] [11] [12] A saurolophine handrosaurid, also known from the Kirtland Formation, Aguja Formation, Ojo Alamo Formation and the El Picacho Formation. A possible second species of Kritosaurus might have lived in the Javelina Formation.
Kritosaurus BW.jpg
Quetzalcoatlus Q. northropi and Q. lawsoni [13] An azhdarchid pterosaur
Life restoration of a group of giant azhdarchids, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, foraging on a Cretaceous fern prairie.png
Rhombodus [7] UnknownA ray
Rhombodus NT small.jpg
Saurornitholestes [14] S. cf. langstoniA dromaeosaurid
Saurornitholestes digging Burrows wahweap.jpg
Saurolophinae [8] Indeterminate [8] A saurolophine handrosaurid similar to the genus Saurolophus .
Torosaurus [15] T. cf. utahensis [15] A chasmosaurine ceratopsid whose remains have been found in the Frenchman Formation, Hell Creek Formation, North Horn Formation, McRae Formation, and Lance Formation.
"Torosaurus" utahensis profile reconstruction.jpg
Troodontidae Indeterminate [16] A troodontid
Troodon (cropped).jpg
Tyrannosaurus cf. T. sp. [17] A tyrannosaurid, originally identified from the Hell Creek Formation. Also found in the Denver, Ferris, Frenchman, Lance, Livingston, North Horn, Scollard, and Willow Creek Formations. Tyrannosaurus-rex-Profile-steveoc86.png [18]
Trionychidae IndeterminateIndeterminate turtle remains
Wellnhopterus [13] W. brevirostrisAn azhdarchid pterosaur.

Flora

Woody dicots and angiosperms have been unearthed in this formation. [19] [20] Plant fossils indicate that this area was a woodland habitat. [21]

Flora of the Javelina Formation
GenusSpeciesLocationStratigraphic positionMaterialNotesImages
Javelinoxylon [22] J. multiporosum [23] A dicotyledonous tree

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Quetzalcoatlus</i> Genus of azhdarchid pterosaurs from the Late Cretaceous

Quetzalcoatlus is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Maastrichtian age of North America. Its name comes from the Aztec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl. The type species is Q. northropi, named by Douglas Lawson in 1975 after the tailless fixed-wing aircraft designer Jack Northrop. The genus also includes the smaller species Q. lawsoni, which was known for many years as an unnamed species, before being named by Brian Andres and Wann Langston Jr. (posthumously) in 2021. Q. northropi has gained fame as a candidate for the largest flying animal ever discovered.

<i>Edmontosaurus</i> Hadrosaurid dinosaur genus from Late Cretaceous US and Canada

Edmontosaurus, with the second species often colloquially and historically known as Anatosaurus or Anatotitan, is a genus of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur. It contains two known species: Edmontosaurus regalis and Edmontosaurus annectens. Fossils of E. regalis have been found in rocks of western North America that date from the late Campanian age of the Cretaceous period 73 million years ago, while those of E. annectens were found in the same geographic region from rocks dated to the end of the Maastrichtian age, 66 million years ago. Edmontosaurus was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs to ever exist, and lived alongside dinosaurs like Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and Pachycephalosaurus shortly before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

<i>Gryposaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Gryposaurus was a genus of duckbilled dinosaur that lived about 80 to 75 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of North America. Named species of Gryposaurus are known from the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada, and two formations in the United States: the Lower Two Medicine Formation in Montana and the Kaiparowits Formation of Utah. A possible additional species from the Javelina Formation in Texas may extend the temporal range of the genus to 66 million years ago.

<i>Kritosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Kritosaurus is an incompletely known genus of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur. It lived about 74.5-66 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of North America. The name means "separated lizard", but is often mistranslated as "noble lizard" in reference to the presumed "Roman nose".

<i>Alamosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Alamosaurus is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs containing a single known species, Alamosaurus sanjuanensis, from the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period in what is now southwestern North America. It is the only known titanosaur to have inhabited North America after the nearly 30-million year absence of sauropods from the North American fossil record and probably represents an immigrant from South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lance Formation</span> Geological formation in the United States

The Lance (Creek) Formation is a division of Late Cretaceous rocks in the western United States. Named after Lance Creek, Wyoming, the microvertebrate fossils and dinosaurs represent important components of the latest Mesozoic vertebrate faunas. The Lance Formation is Late Maastrichtian in age, and shares much fauna with the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and North Dakota, the Frenchman Formation of southwest Saskatchewan, and the lower part of the Scollard Formation of Alberta.

<i>Agujaceratops</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Agujaceratops is a genus of horned dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of west Texas. It is a chasmosaurine (long-frilled) ceratopsian. Two species are known, Agujaceratops mariscalensis, and A. mavericus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horseshoe Canyon Formation</span> Geological formation in Canada

The Horseshoe Canyon Formation is a stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southwestern Alberta. It takes its name from Horseshoe Canyon, an area of badlands near Drumheller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Horn Formation</span> Geological formation in Utah

The North Horn Formation is a widespread non-marine sedimentary unit with extensive outcrops exposed in central and eastern Utah. The formation locally exceeds 3,600 feet (1,100 m) in thickness and is characterized by fluvial, lacustrine, and floodplain dominated systems, representing a terrestrial, high energy, depositional environment. The sediments date from Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to early Paleocene in age and include the K-Pg extinction event boundary; however, this boundary is extremely difficult to locate and there is no strong stratigraphic evidence available that indicates a specific marker bed such as an iridium rich clay layer. Thus far, the only visible evidence is represented in the form of faunal turnover from dinosaur to mammal-dominated fossil assemblages. Taxa from the Cretaceous part of the formation include squamates, testudines, choristoderes, crocodyliforms, sharks, bony fishes, amphibians, mammals, dinosaurs, eggshell fragments, trace fossils, mollusks, plant macrofossils, such as wood fragments, and palynomorphs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McRae Group</span> A geologic formation in New Mexico

The McRae Group is a geological group exposed in southern New Mexico whose strata, including layers of the Hall Lake Formation and Jose Creek Formation, date to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from this unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aguja Formation</span>

The Aguja Formation is a geological formation in North America, exposed in Texas, United States and Chihuahua and Coahuila in Mexico, whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. Fossil palms have also been unearthed here.

The El Picacho Formation is a geological formation in Texas, United States, whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. The paleosols found here are rich in clay, calcite, and rhizoliths which show that during the Cretaceous period, this fossil formation, just like the neighboring Javelina Formation and Aguja Formation, was a fluvial flood plain.

The Black Peaks Formation is a geological formation in Texas whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains and the pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus northropi have been among the fossils reported from the formation. The boundary with the underlying Javelina Formation has been estimated at 66.5 million years old. The formation preserves the rays Rhombodus and Dasyatis, as well as many gar scales.

<i>Angulomastacator</i> Extinct genus of dinosaur

Angulomastacator is a genus of duck-billed dinosaur from the Campanian-age Aguja Formation of Big Bend National Park, Texas. It is known from a single specimen, TMM 43681–1, a partial left maxilla. This bone is curved down approximately 45° at its anterior end, with the tooth row bent to fit, unlike any other hadrosaur. The unusual characteristics of the maxilla, which have not been reported from elsewhere, supports the hypothesis that the dinosaurs of the Aguja Formation were endemic forms. It was discovered in the upper shale member of the Aguja Formation, among plant, bone, and clam fragments in a bed interpreted as the deposits of a small tributary channel. This bed is just below rocks of the overlying Javelina Formation. Volcanic rocks at about the same level have been dated to 76.9 ± 1.2 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appalachia (landmass)</span> Mesozoic land mass separated from Laramidia to the west by the Western Interior Seaway

During most of the Late Cretaceous the eastern half of North America formed Appalachia, an island land mass separated from Laramidia to the west by the Western Interior Seaway. This seaway had split North America into two massive landmasses due to a multitude of factors such as tectonism and sea-level fluctuations for nearly 40 million years. The seaway eventually expanded, divided across the Dakotas, and by the end of the Cretaceous, it retreated towards the Gulf of Mexico and the Hudson Bay. This left the island masses joined in the continent of North America as the Rocky Mountains rose. From the Cenomanian to the end of the Campanian ages of the Late Cretaceous, Appalachia was separated from the rest of North America. As the Western Interior Seaway retreated in the Maastrichtian, Laramidia and Appalachia eventually connected. Because of this, its fauna was isolated, and developed very differently from the tyrannosaur, ceratopsian, hadrosaurid, pachycephalosaur and ankylosaurid dominated fauna of the western part of North America, known as "Laramidia".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triceratopsini</span> Extinct tribe of dinosaurs

Triceratopsini is a tribe of herbivorous chasmosaurine dinosaurs that lived between the late Campanian to the late Maastrichtian stages of the Cretaceous period, between 74.73 and 66 million years ago. Fossils of these animals have been found in western North America, in particular West Canada, Western and Midwestern United States, which was once part of the ancient continent of Laramidia. The tribe was named by Nicholas R. Longrich in 2011 for the description of Titanoceratops, which he defined as "all species closer to Triceratops horridus than to Anchiceratops ornatus or Arrhinoceratops brachyops". Triceratopsins were the largest of the chasmosaurines; suggesting that gigantism had evolved in the Ceratopsidae once. In addition there is an evolutionary trend in the solidification of the frills, the most extreme being in Triceratops.

<i>Bravoceratops</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Bravoceratops is a genus of large chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that lived approximately 70 million years ago, and is known from the Late Cretaceous Javelina Formation in what is now Texas, United States.

ReBecca Hunt-Foster is an American paleontologist. She has worked with dinosaur remains from the Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous of the Colorado Plateau, Rocky Mountains, Southcentral, and the Southwestern United States of America. She described the dinosaur Arkansaurus fridayi and identified the first juvenile Torosaurus occurrences from Big Bend National Park in North America in 2008.

<i>Leptorhynchos gaddisi</i> Extinct species of dinosaur

Leptorhynchos is an extinct genus of caenagnathid theropod from the Late Cretaceous of what is now the US state of Texas, although it has been suggested to also exist in Alberta and South Dakota. The type species is L. gaddisi, and it is currently the only widely accepted valid species. The generic name of Leptorhynchos comes from the Greek "leptos" meaning "small" and "rhynchos" meaning "beak". The specific epithet is in honor of the Gaddis family, who owned the land on which the holotype was discovered.

<i>Wellnhopterus</i> Genus of azhdarchid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous

Wellnhopterus is an azhdarchid pterosaur recovered from the Late Cretaceous Javelina Formation in Texas that was previously identified as a thalassodromine. It consists of a set of upper and lower jaws, as well as some cervical vertebrae and a fragmentary long bone. In July 2021, the jaws were given the genus name "Javelinadactylus", with the type and only species as "J. sagebieli"; however, this article has now been retracted. In a paper published in December 2021, the complete holotype was independently named Wellnhopterus, with the only species being W. brevirostris. As of 2022, this is the formal name of this pterosaur.

References

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  23. Wheeler, E. A.; Lehman, T. M.; Gasson, P. E. (1994). "Javelinoxylon, an Upper Cretaceous dicotyledonous tree from Big Bend National Park, Texas, with presumed Malvalean affinities". American Journal of Botany . 81 (6): 703–710. doi:10.1002/j.1537-2197.1994.tb15504.x.

Further reading