Moreno Hill Formation

Moreno Hill Formation
Stratigraphic range: Turonian–Coniacian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N [1]
Type	Geological formation
Underlies	Fence Lake Formation
Overlies	Atarque Sandstone
Thickness	217 meters (712 ft)
Lithology
Primary	Sandstone, Shale
Other	Siltstone, Coal
Location
Coordinates	34°35′21″N108°45′33″W / 34.5893°N 108.7592°W / 34.5893; -108.7592
Region	New Mexico
Country	United States
Type section
Named for	Moreno Hill
Named by	McLellan, Haschke, Robinson, Carter, and Medlin
Year defined	1983
Moreno Hill Formation (the United States) Show map of the United States Moreno Hill Formation (New Mexico) Show map of New Mexico

The Moreno Hill Formation is a geological formation in western New Mexico whose strata were deposited in the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. ^[2] The age of the formation is dated between approximately 90.9 to 88.6 million years ago based on detrital zircons. ^[1]

Description

The formation is a nonmarine coal-bearing formation composed mostly of sandstone and shale with minor siltstone. The shales are brownish gray in color, and the sandstones are discontinuous beds of very pale orange to light brown poorly sorted grains that usually show steep crossbedding. The sandstones are interpreted as channel or splay deposits in a fluvial environment. The shales include thin lenses of bituminous coal, including tonsteins (distinctive thin ash beds). The total maximum thickness is 217 meters (712 ft). It overlies the Atarque Sandstone and is in turn overlain by the Fence Lake Formation. ^[3]

Moreno Hill Formation was first named by McLellan and coinvestigators in 1983 for exposures around Moreno Hill in the Salt Lake coal field of western New Mexico. The beds were originally mapped as Mesaverde Group, but were found to be much lower in the stratigraphic column. ^[3] The formation is also laterally equivalent to the Tres Hermanos Formation, Pescado Tongue of the Mancos Shale, Gallup Sandstone, and lower Crevasse Canyon Formation. It represents beds southwest of the pinchout of the Pescado Tongue where the Tres Hermanos Formation and Gallup Sandstone are no longer lithologically distinguishable. ^[4] It also documents a time of tectonic upheaval, volcanic activities, humid paleoclimate, and North American coastal margin shifts. ^[1]

Fossil content

Moreno Hill Formation was originally thought to be devoid of fossils, ^[3] but it has since yielded a diverse vertebrate paleofauna, including four genera of dinosaurs. An indeterminate crocodyliform fossil has been reported. ^{[4] [5]} Coalified and permineralized fossil wood are also common in this formation, including those of gymnosperms and angiosperms. ^[6]

Vertebrate fossils

Fish

Fish of the Moreno Hill Formation
Genus	Species	Presence	Material	Notes	Images
Amiidae	indet.		Amiid teeth [5]	Had been tentatively classified as Melvius sp. by Wolfe and Kirkland (1998) [4]
Lepisosteidae	indet.		Gar scales [5]	Had been tentatively classified as Lepisosteus sp. by Wolfe and Kirkland (1998) [4]

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs of the Moreno Hill Formation
Genus	Species	Presence	Material	Description	Images
Ankylosauria indet.	Indeterminate		Teeth (specimens MSM P15742 and MSM P15743). [7]	Ankylosaur teeth.
Jeyawati	J. rugoculus			A basal hadrosauromorph. [8]
Nothronychus	N. mckinleyi		"Teeth, fragmentary skull bones, cervical and other vertebrae, scapula, partial forelimb and hindlimb." [9]	A therizinosaur. [10]
Suskityrannus	S. hazelae		Partial skull & skeleton. [11]	A tyrannosauroid.
Zuniceratops	Z. christopheri		"Partial cranial and postcranial materials of five individuals." [12]	A ceratopsian. [4]

Testudines

Testudines of the Moreno Hill Formation
Genus	Species	Presence	Material	Notes	Images
Edowa	E. zuniensis		[5]	A baenid.
Naomichelys	N. sp.		[5]	A helochelydrid.
Trionychidae			[5]	An indeterminate trionychid.

Paleoflora

Plants of the Moreno Hill Formation [13]
Genus	Species	Presence	Material	Notes	Images
Paraphyllanthoxylon	P. arizonense
Herendeenoxylon	H. zuniense
Vasunum	V. cretaceum

See also

• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
  • List of stratigraphic units with few dinosaur genera

References

1. Cilliers, Charl D.; Tucker, Ryan T.; Crowley, James L.; Zanno, Lindsay E. (2021). "Age constraint for the Moreno Hill Formation (Zuni Basin) by CA-TIMS and LA-ICP-MS detrital zircon geochronology". PeerJ. 9. e10948. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10948 . PMC   7953880 . PMID   33854833.
2. Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Cretaceous, North America)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 574-588. ISBN   0-520-24209-2.
3. McLellan, M.W.; Haschke, L.R.; Robinson, L.N.; Carter, M.D.; Medlin, A.L. (1983). "Middle Turonian and younger Cretaceous rocks, northern Salt Lake coal field, Cibola and Catron Counties, New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Circular. 185: 41–47. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
4. Wolfe, D.G; Kirkland, J.I. (1998). "Zuniceratops christopheri n. gen. & n. sp., a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Moreno Hill Formation (Cretaceous, Turonian) of west-central New Mexico". New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Bulletin. 14: 303–317.
5. Adrian, Brent; Smith, Heather F.; Kelley, Kara; Wolfe, Douglas G. (2022-11-23). "A new baenid, Edowa zuniensis gen. et sp. nov., and other fossil turtles from the Upper Cretaceous Moreno Hill Formation (Turonian), New Mexico, USA" . Cretaceous Research. 144: 105422. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2022.105422. ISSN   0195-6671. S2CID   253905727.
6. Sweeney, Ian J.; Chin, K.; Hower, James C.; Budd, David A.; Wolfe, Douglas G. (2009). "Fossil wood from the middle Cretaceous Moreno Hill Formation: Unique expressions of wood mineralization and implications for the processes of wood preservation". International Journal of Coal Geology. 79 (1–2): 1–17. doi:10.1016/j.coal.2009.04.001.
7. Sterling J. Nesbitt; Robert K. Denton Jr; Mark A. Loewen; Stephen L. Brusatte; Nathan D. Smith; Alan H. Turner; James I. Kirkland; Andrew T. McDonald; Douglas G. Wolfe (2019). "Supplementary information for: A mid-Cretaceous tyrannosauroid and the origin of North American end-Cretaceous dinosaur assemblages" (PDF). Nature Ecology & Evolution. 3 (6): 892–899. Bibcode:2019NatEE...3..892N. doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0888-0. hdl: 20.500.11820/a6709b34-e3ab-416e-a866-03ba1162b23d . PMID   31061476. S2CID   146115938.
8. McDonald, A.T.; Wolfe, D.G.; Kirkland, J.I. (2006). "On a hadrosauromorph (Dinosauria: Onithopoda) from the Moreno Hill Formation (Cretaceous, Turonian) of New Mexico". New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin. 35: 277–280. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
9. "Table 7.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 152.
10. J.I., Kirkland; Wolfe, D.G. (2001). "First definitive therizinosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from North America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 21 (3): 410–414. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2001)021[0410:FDTDTF]2.0.CO;2. S2CID   85705529.
11. Nesbitt, Sterling J.; Denton, Robert K.; Loewen, Mark A.; Brusatte, Stephen L.; Smith, Nathan D.; Turner, Alan H.; Kirkland, James I.; McDonald, Andrew T.; Wolfe, Douglas G. (June 2019). "A mid-Cretaceous tyrannosauroid and the origin of North American end-Cretaceous dinosaur assemblages" (PDF). Nature Ecology & Evolution. 3 (6): 892–899. Bibcode:2019NatEE...3..892N. doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0888-0. hdl: 20.500.11820/a6709b34-e3ab-416e-a866-03ba1162b23d . PMID   31061476. S2CID   146115938.
12. "Table 22.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 480.
13. Karen Chin; Emilio Estrada-Ruiz; Elisabeth A. Wheeler; Garland R. Upchurch Jr.; Douglas G. Wolfe (2019). "Early angiosperm woods from the mid-Cretaceous (Turonian) of New Mexico, USA: Paraphyllanthoxylon, two new taxa, and unusual preservation". Cretaceous Research. 98: 292–304. Bibcode:2019CrRes..98..292C. doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2019.01.017 . S2CID   135306441.