North American land mammal age

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The North American land mammal ages (NALMA) establishes a geologic timescale for North American fauna beginning during the Late Cretaceous and continuing through to the present. These periods are referred to as ages or intervals (or stages when referring to the rock strata of that age) and were established using geographic place names where fossil materials were obtained. [1]

Contents

System

The North American land-mammal-age system was formalized in 1941 as a series of provincial land-mammal ages. [2] The system was the standard for correlations in the terrestrial Cenozoic record of North America and was the source for similar time scales dealing with other continents. The system was revised into a formal chronostratigraphic system. This approach is nominally justified by international stratigraphic codes; it holds that first appearances of individual species in particular sections are the only valid basis for naming and defining the land-mammal ages.

The basic unit of measure is the first/last boundary statement. This shows that the first appearance event of one taxon is known to predate the last appearance event of another. If two taxa are found in the same fossil quarry or at the same stratigraphic horizon, then their age-range zones overlap. [3]

The utility of the system led to its expansion into the Cretaceous (formalized 1986) [4] and the Holocene (formalized 2014). [5] These additions have been used in research related to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event and the ensuing recovery, [6] and to the Anthropocene debate, [5] respectively. However, the ages that stretch into the Cretaceous are sometimes referred to as "North American land vertebrate ages" to reflect the fact that mammals, while still abundant, were not the dominant form of terrestrial life during the Mesozoic. [7]

Ages

Cenozoic land mammal ages

Cretaceous land vertebrate ages

Other continental ages

See also

Related Research Articles

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Chronostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy that studies the ages of rock strata in relation to time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fruitland Formation</span> Geological formation in New Mexico and Colorado

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ogallala Formation</span> Geologic formation in the western United States

The Ogallala Formation is a Miocene to early Pliocene geologic formation in the central High Plains of the western United States and the location of the Ogallala Aquifer. In Nebraska and South Dakota it is also classified as the Ogallala Group. Notably, it records the North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMAs) Hemphillian, Clarendonian, and Barstovian. It also includes an excellent record of grass seeds and other plant seeds, which can be used for biostratigraphic dating within the formation. The Ogallala Formation outcrops of Lake Meredith National Recreation Area preserve fish fossils. Similar specimens from the same unit are found at Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument in Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uinta Formation</span> Geologic formation in Utah, United States

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References

  1. Roberto Díaz Sibaja, Eduardo Jiménez Hidalgo, Ma. Luisa García Zepeda. "Una nueva localidad fosilífera en Oaxaca (México) y el registro más austral de Bison latifrons: Implicaciones paleobiogeográficas, paleoecológicas y paleoambientales" (PDF). Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana. 70: 201–222.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Wood, H. E.; Chaney, R. W.; Clark, J.; Colbert, E. H.; Jepsen, G.L.; Reeside, J. B.; Stock, C. (1941). "Nomenclature and correlation of the North American continental Tertiary". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 52 (1): 1–48. Bibcode:1941GSAB...52....1W. doi:10.1130/gsab-52-1.
  3. Woodburne, Michael O., ed. (1987). "A prospectus of the North American Mammal Ages". Cenozoic mammals of North America : geochronology and biostratigraphy. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 285–290. ISBN   978-0520053922.
  4. Lillegraven, J. A.; McKenna, M. C. (1986). "Fossil mammals from the" Mesaverde" Formation (late Cretaceous, Judithian) of the Bighorn and Wind River basins, Wyoming: with definitions of late Cretaceous North American land-mammal" ages"". American Museum Novitates (2840): 1–68.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Barnosky, A. D.; Holmes, M.; Kircholtes, R.; Lindsey, E.; Maguire, K. C.; Poust, A. W.; Stegner, M. A.; Sunseri, J.; Swartz, B.; Swift, J.; Villavicencio, N. A. (2014). "Prelude to the Anthropocene: Two new North American land mammal ages (NALMAs)". The Anthropocene Review. 1 (3): 225–242. doi:10.1177/2053019614547433. S2CID   128697655.
  6. Woodburne, Michael O., ed. (2012). "Mammalian Biochronology of the Latest Cretaceous". Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic mammals of North America biostratigraphy and geochronology. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 21–43. ISBN   9780231503785.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fowler, DW (2017). "Revised geochronology, correlation, and dinosaur stratigraphic ranges of the Santonian-Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) formations of the Western Interior of North America". PLOS ONE. 12 (11): e0188426. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188426 . PMC   5699823 . PMID   29166406.
  8. Ramezani, J.; Beveridge, T.L.; Rogers, R.; Eberth, D.; Roberts, E. (2022). "Calibrating the zenith of dinosaur diversity in the Campanian of the Western Interior Basin by CA-ID-TIMS U–Pb geochronology". Sci Rep. 12 (1): 16026. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-19896-w. PMC   9512893 . PMID   36163377.