Potomac Group | |
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Stratigraphic range: Cretaceous, | |
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Type | Group |
Sub-units | Patuxent Formation, Arundel Formation, Patapsco Formation, Raritan Formation |
Underlies | Raritan Formation, Magothy Formation |
Overlies | Boonton Formation |
Location | |
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The Potomac Group is a geologic group in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia. It preserves fossils dating back to the Cretaceous period. An indeterminate tyrannosauroid and Priconodon crassus , a nodosaurid, are known from indeterminate sediments belonging to the Potomac Group. [1] The Potomac Group was initially believed to have been Late Jurassic in age by Othniel Charles Marsh [2] but later studies, such as Clark (1897), have found that the Potomac Group is in fact Early-Late Cretaceous (Aptian-Turonian) in age. [3] The most famous member of the group is the Arundel Formation, which preserves a high diversity of terrestrial vertebrate fauna and provides the most comprehensive look at the dinosaurian fauna of eastern North America during the Early Cretaceous. [4]