Reuchenette Formation

Last updated
Reuchenette Formation
Stratigraphic range: Kimmeridgian,
157  Ma
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Type Geological formation
Sub-unitsMembre de Chevenez, Membre de Courtedoux, Marne du Banné, Membre de Vabenau
Underlies Twannbach Formation
OverliesFormation de Court, Balsthal-Formation, Membre de Porrentruy, Verena-Member, Holzflue-Member, Formation de Courgenay
Thickness140 metres average, 160 m in type area.
Lithology
Primary Limestone
Other Mudstone
Location
Region Europe
CountryFlag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg  Switzerland

The Reuchenette Formation is a Jurassic geologic formation in Switzerland. It is Kimmeridgian in age and predominantly consists of well stratified limestone, with lithology variable both laterally and stratigraphically including wackestones, packstones and grainstones, as well as mudstone. [1] Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, including the Turiasaurian sauropod Amanzia greppini, alongside a theropod tooth belonging to Ceratosauria indet, originally assigned to Megalosaurus meriani. [2] teleosaurid crocodyliformes are also known, including Sericodon, Proexochokefalos and Machimosaurus. [3] The metriorhynchid thalatosuchians Torvoneustes [4] and Dakosaurus . The hybodontid shark Asteracanthus . [5] The thalassochelydian turtle Thalassemys [6] and Solnhofia is known from the formation, [7] as is the platychelyid turtles Platychelys, [8] and the plesiochelyid turtle Plesiochelys . [9]

Contents

Vertebrate Fauna

Color key
Taxon Reclassified taxonTaxon falsely reported as presentDubious taxon or junior synonym Ichnotaxon Ootaxon Morphotaxon
Notes
Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; crossed out taxa are discredited.

Ray-finned fish

GenusSpeciesMaterialNotesImages

Lobe-finned fish

GenusSpeciesMaterialNotesImages

Cartilaginous fish

GenusSpeciesMaterialNotesImages
Asteracanthus A. udulfensis

Reptiles

Testudinata

GenusSpeciesMaterialNotesImages
Craspedochelys C. picteti
C. jaccardi
Plesiochelys P. bigleri
Plesiochelys holotype.png
Platychelys P. oberndorferi
Portlandemys P. gracilis
Solnhofia S. brachyrhyncha
Tropidemys T. langii
Thalassemys T. bruntrutana
T. hugii
"T." moseri

Crocodylomorpha

GenusSpeciesMaterialNotesImages
Dakosaurus D. maximus
Machimosaurus H. hugii
Proexochokefalos P. cf. bouchardi
Sericodon S. jugleri
Torvoneustes T. jurensis
Torvoneustes-jurensis-holotype.jpg

Dinosauria

GenusSpeciesMaterialNotesImages
Amanzia [2] A. greppini
Amanzia Scale.svg
Ceratosauria Indeterminate

Pterosauria

GenusSpeciesMaterialNotesImages
Pterodactyloidea IndeterminateSecond wing phalanx (NMS 20’870)

Invertebrate Fauna

Cephalopoda

GenusSpeciesMaterialNotesImages

See also

Footnotes

  1. "Reuchenette Formation". strati.ch.
  2. 1 2 Schwarz, Daniela; Mannion, Philip D.; Wings, Oliver; Meyer, Christian A. (December 2020). "Re-description of the sauropod dinosaur Amanzia ("Ornithopsis/Cetiosauriscus") greppini n. gen. and other vertebrate remains from the Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) Reuchenette Formation of Moutier, Switzerland". Swiss Journal of Geosciences . 113 (1): 2. doi: 10.1186/s00015-020-00355-5 . ISSN   1661-8726.
  3. Johnson, Michela M.; Young, Mark T.; Brusatte, Stephen L. (2020). "The phylogenetics of Teleosauroidea (Crocodylomorpha, Thalattosuchia) and implications for their ecology and evolution". PeerJ. 8: e9808. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9808 . PMC   7548081 . PMID   33083104.
  4. Girard, L. C.; De Sousa Oliveira, S.; Raselli, I.; Martin, J. E.; Anquetin, J. (2023). "Description and phylogenetic relationships of a new species of Torvoneustes (Crocodylomorpha, Thalattosuchia) from the Kimmeridgian of Switzerland". PeerJ. 11. e15512. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15512 . PMC   10362849 . PMID   37483966.
  5. Léa Leuzinger; Gilles Cuny; Evgeny Popov; Jean-Paul Billon-Bruyat (2017). "A new chondrichthyan fauna from the Late Jurassic of the Swiss Jura (Kimmeridgian) dominated by hybodonts, chimaeroids and guitarfishes". Papers in Palaeontology. 3 (4): 471–511. Bibcode:2017PPal....3..471L. doi: 10.1002/spp2.1085 . hdl: 11336/41081 .
  6. Anquetin, J.; Püntener, C.; Joyce, W.G. (2017). "A Review of the Fossil Record of Turtles of the Clade Thalassochelydia" (PDF). Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 58 (2): 317–369. doi:10.3374/014.058.0205. S2CID   31091127.
  7. Anquetin, Jérémy; Püntener, Christian (2020-11-12). "A new species of the large-headed coastal marine turtle Solnhofia (Testudinata, Thalassochelydia) from the Late Jurassic of NW Switzerland". PeerJ. 8: e9931. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9931 . ISSN   2167-8359. PMC   7666818 . PMID   33240584.
  8. Sullivan, Patrick M.; Joyce, Walter G. (August 2017). "The shell and pelvic anatomy of the Late Jurassic turtle Platychelys oberndorferi based on material from Solothurn, Switzerland". Swiss Journal of Palaeontology . 136 (2): 323–343. doi:10.1007/s13358-017-0136-7. ISSN   1664-2376.
  9. Christian Püntener; Jérémy Anquetin; Jean-Paul Billon-Bruyat (2017). "The comparative osteology of Plesiochelys bigleri n. sp., a new coastal marine turtle from the Late Jurassic of Porrentruy (Switzerland)". PeerJ. 5: e3482. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3482 . PMC   5493033 . PMID   28674653.

Related Research Articles

In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 149.2 ±0.7 Ma and 145.0 ± 4 Ma. It is preceded by the Kimmeridgian and followed by the Berriasian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimmeridge Clay</span> Geological formation in England

The Kimmeridge Clay is a sedimentary deposit of fossiliferous marine clay which is of Late Jurassic to lowermost Cretaceous age and occurs in southern and eastern England and in the North Sea. This rock formation is the major source rock for North Sea oil. The fossil fauna of the Kimmeridge Clay includes turtles, crocodiles, sauropods, plesiosaurs, pliosaurs and ichthyosaurs, as well as a number of invertebrate species.

<i>Machimosaurus</i> Genus of reptiles

Machimosaurus is an extinct genus of machimosaurid crocodyliform from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. The type species, Machimosaurus hugii, was found in Switzerland. Other fossils have been found in England, France, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland and Tunisia. Machimosaurus rex is the largest named teleosauroid and thalattosuchian, with an estimated length of up to 7.15 m (23.5 ft). Machimosaurus is the largest known crocodyliform of the Jurassic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thalattosuchia</span> Clade of marine crocodylomorphs

Thalattosuchia is a clade of mostly marine crocodylomorphs from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous that had a cosmopolitan distribution. They are colloquially referred to as marine crocodiles or sea crocodiles, though they are not members of Crocodilia and records from Thailand and China suggest that some members lived in freshwater. The clade contains two major subgroupings, the Teleosauroidea and Metriorhynchoidea. Teleosauroids are not greatly specialised for oceanic life, with back osteoderms similar to other crocodyliformes. Within Metriorhynchoidea, the Metriorhynchidae displayed extreme adaptions for life in the open ocean, including the transformation of limbs into flippers, the development of a tail fluke, and smooth, scaleless skin, and probably gave live birth, seemingly uniquely among archosaurs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teleosauridae</span> Extinct family of reptiles

Teleosauridae is a family of extinct typically marine crocodylomorphs similar to the modern gharial that lived during the Jurassic period. Teleosaurids were thalattosuchians closely related to the fully aquatic metriorhynchoids, but were less adapted to an open-ocean, pelagic lifestyle. The family was originally coined to include all the semi-aquatic thalattosuchians and was equivalent to the modern superfamily Teleosauroidea. However, as teleosauroid relationships and diversity was better studied in the 21st century, the division of teleosauroids into two distinct evolutionary lineages led to the establishment of Teleosauridae as a more restrictive family within the group, together with its sister family Machimosauridae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turiasauria</span> Extinct clade of dinosaurs

Turiasauria is an unranked clade of basal sauropod dinosaurs known from Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous deposits in Europe, North America, and Africa.

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

Australodocus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago, in what is now Lindi Region, Tanzania. Though initially considered a diplodocid, recent analyses suggest it may instead be a titanosauriform.

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

Mycterosuchus is an extinct genus of teleosaurid crocodyliform from the Middle Jurassic (Callovian) of England. Although previously synonymized with Steneosaurus, recent cladistic analysis considers it distantly related to the Steneosaurus type species.

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

Sericodon is an extinct genus of teleosaurid crocodyliform from the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) of Germany and Switzerland. The genus contains a single species, S. jugleri. Sericodon was placed in 'Clade T' (Aeolodontinae) and was found to be the sister taxon to Bathysuchus, another teleosaurid.

The Calcaire de Caen or Calcaires de Caen Formation; French for Caen Limestone, is a geological formation in France. It dates back to the mid-Bathonian of the Jurassic. It was often quarried for building work and is referred to as Caen Stone.

<i>Thalassemys</i> Extinct genus of turtles

Thalassemys is a genus of extinct thalassochelydian turtle from the Late Jurassic of western and central Europe. While the genus was originally named by Rütimeyer in 1859 for a large carapace and other associated fragments from the late Kimmeridgian of the Reuchenette Formation of Switzerland, although the taxon was not validly named until 1873 when Rütimeyer designated the type species T. hugii. Rütimeyer also named T. gresslyi from the Reunchenette Formation in the same paper as T. hugii, but it cannot be differentiated from the type material of T. hugii and is therefore a junior synonym. A large assemblage of shell and postcranial material from the Reunchenette was named as a species of Eurysternum, E. ignoratum, by Bräm in 1965. While originally distinguished based on the presence of fontanelles on the plastron, the feature was later identified on T. hugii and E. ignoratum was designated a junior synonym. Additional material from the Kimmeridge Clay of the United Kingdom has also been referred to T. hugii.

The Lastres Formation is a geological formation located in Asturias province, northwestern Spain. It is believed to have been deposited in a fluvial-dominated deltaic system.

<i>Eurysternum</i> Extinct genus of turtles

Eurysternum is an extinct genus of thalassochelydian turtle. Its type species is Eurysternum wagleri, the holotype of which has since been lost and only survives in illustrations.

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

Torvoneustes is an extinct genus of metriorhynchid thalattosuchian. It is known from skull and postcranial remains found in the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Dorset and Wiltshire, England, the Virgula Marls of Switzerland and also from Oaxaca, Mexico . The holotype skull of the type species was initially assigned to the species Metriorhynchus superciliosus. Postcranial remains were later discovered from the same quarry as the skull, and then these specimens were recognised as belonging to a new species of Dakosaurus, as D. carpenteri. The species was named to honour Simon Carpenter, an amateur geologist from Frome in Somerset, who discovered the fossils.

<i>Plesiochelys</i> Genus of turtle

Plesiochelys is a genus of late Jurassic European and Asian turtle. The type species is Plesiochelys etalloni.

<i>Achelonia</i> Extinct genus of turtles

Achelonia is an extinct genus of marine thalassochelydian turtle. Its type species is Achelonia formosa. Fossils are known from the Upper Jurassic of Wattendorf, Germany, within Cerin, France, and also in England. Material from England was originally considered to belong to the separate genus Enaliochelys and species Enaliochelys chelonia, named by Harry Govier Seeley in 1869 for a partial disarticulated skeleton from the early Kimmeridgian of the Kimmeridge Clay in Cambridgeshire. The synonymy was recognised in 2020.

Amanzia is a genus of turiasaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Reuchenette Formation in Moutier, Switzerland. The type and only species is Amanzia greppini, originally named as a species of Ornithopsis and Cetiosauriscus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thalassochelydia</span> Extinct clade of turtles

Thalassochelydia is a clade of extinct marine turtles from the Late Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous of Europe and South America. The group is defined as including Eurysternum, Plesiochelys and Thalassemys to the exclusion of Pelomedusa, Testudo and Protostega. While a clade uniting the families Eurysternidae, Plesiochelyidae and Thalassemydidae had been supported by phylogenetic evidence, a name was not given for the clade until 2017, when Jérémy Anquetin and colleagues coined Thalassochelydia.

<i>Solnhofia</i> Extinct genus of turtles

Solnhofia is a genus of extinct thalassochelydian turtle from the Late Jurassic of Germany. The type species is Solnhofia parsonsi, named by Gaffney in 1975 for a partial skull and jaw from the early Tithonian of the Solnhofen Formation in Bavaria. Additional material including a complete skeleton is known from the late Kimmeridgian of Switzerland and the Kimmeridgian/Tithonian of other deposits within Bavaria, and potentially also unprepared material from the Late Jurassic of France. The genus was referred to the family Eurysternidae by Anquetin and colleagues in 2017, which may represent an artificial grade of early thalassochelydians. In 2020 a new species Solnhofia brachyrhyncha was described from the Kimmeridigan aged Reuchenette Formation of Switzerland.

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

The Süntel Formation, previously known as the Kimmeridge Formation, is a geological formation in Germany. It is Late Jurassic in age, spanning the early to late Kimmeridgian stage. It predominantly consists of limestone deposited in shallow marine carbonate ramp conditions.

References