Washakie Formation | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: Lutetian (Bridgerian-Uintan) ~ | |
Type | Formation |
Sub-units | Adobe Town & Kinney Rim members |
Lithology | |
Primary | Sandstone |
Location | |
Coordinates | 41°42′N109°00′W / 41.7°N 109.0°W |
Approximate paleocoordinates | 45°36′N95°06′W / 45.6°N 95.1°W |
Region | Colorado & Wyoming |
Country | United States |
Extent | Sand Wash & Washakie Basins |
The Washakie Formation is a geologic formation in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming. It preserves many mammal, bird, reptile and other fossils dating back to the Lutetian stage of the Eocene within the Paleogene period. The sediments fall in the Bridgerian and Uintan stages of the NALMA classification. [1]
The Washakie Formation has provided many fossil mammals, turtles and other reptiles, birds and other fossils. [1]
The artiodactyl Heliosus apophis was described from the formation by Burger and Jolley, [2] and the rodents Pareumys flynni , Pauromys turnbulli and Thisbemys intermedius by Korth in 2020. [3] [4]
Color key
| Notes Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; |
Taeniodonts | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
Stylinodon | S. mirus | Lower part of the Adobe Town Member. [5] | 6 specimens. [5] | A stylinodontid taeniodont. | |
Ferae | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
Carnivoraformes gen. indet. | species A | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Tooth fragments. [6] | A carnivoraform. | |
species B | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Teeth. [6] | A carnivoraform. | ||
Harpalodon | H. sylvestris | Adobe Town Member. [6] | A carnivoraform. | ||
Hyaenodontidae | Hyaenodontidae gen. indet. | 2 partial teeth. [6] | A hyaenodont. | ||
Limnocyon | L. potens | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Partial skeleton. [6] | A hyaenodont. | |
L. verus | Adobe Town Member. [6] | A hyaenodont. | |||
Lycarion | L. medius | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Cranium, dentary and right humerus. [6] | A carnivoraform. | |
Machaeroidinae | Machaeroidinae gen. indet. | Posterior fragment of a right molar. [6] | An oxyaenid. | ||
Neovulpavus | N. mccarrolli | Adobe Town Member. [6] | A carnivoraform. | ||
N. washakius | Adobe Town Member. [6] | A carnivoraform. | |||
Oodectes | O. proximus | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Labial fragment of right molar. [6] | A miacid. | |
O. pugnax | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Partial left dentary. [6] | A miacid. | ||
Patriofelis | P. ferox | Adobe Town Member. [6] | An oxyaenid. | ||
Sinopa | S. lania | Adobe Town Member. [6] | A hyaenodont. | ||
S. major | Adobe Town Member. [6] | A hyaenodont. | |||
S. cf. S. minor | Adobe Town Member. [6] | "FMNH PM 56405, right m1 with broken paraconid". [6] | A hyaenodont. | ||
S. species A | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Left maxillary fragment. [6] | A hyaenodont. | ||
Thinocyon | T. cf. T. medius | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Teeth. [6] | A hyaenodont. | |
T. velox | Adobe Town Member. [6] | A hyaenodont. | |||
Tritemnodon | T. sp. | Dentary fragments, fragments of vertebra and ulna. [6] | A hyaenodont. | ||
Uintacyon | U. jugulans | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Left dentary fragment and right molar. [6] | A miacid. | |
Viverravus | V. gracilis | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Dentaries and teeth. [6] | A viverravid. | |
V. minutus | Adobe Town Member. [6] | Right dentary fragment. [6] | A viverravid. | ||
V. sp. indet. | Right dentary fragment. [6] | A viverravid. | |||
Rodents | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
Mattimys | M. sp. | Lower Adobe Town Member. [3] | "FMNH PM 56559, right dentary fragment with m1." [3] | An ischyromyid. | |
Metaparamys | M. compressidens | Middle and upper Adobe Town Member. [3] | Skull fragment and dentaries. [3] | An ischyromyid. | |
Mysops | M. sp. | Adobe Town Member. [3] | "FMNH PM 55377, right m1 or m2." [3] | A cylindrodontid. | |
Pareumys | P. flynni | Lower, middle and upper Adobe Town Member. [3] | Dentaries and teeth. [3] | A cylindrodontid. | |
Pauromys | P. turnbulli | Middle Adobe Town Member. [3] | Dentaries. [3] | A sciuravid. | |
Perasciuravus | P. mcintoshi | Lower and possibly middle Adobe Town Member. [7] | A sciuravid. | ||
Protoptychus | P. hatcheri | Middle Adobe Town Member. [3] [8] | |||
Quadratomus | Q. grandis | Lower Adobe Town Member. [3] | "FMNH PM 55166, left M1 or M2; FMNH PM 55348, associated right p4 and m1." [3] | An ischyromyid. | |
Thisbemys | T. intermedius | [4] | An ischyromyid. | ||
T. cf. T. uintensis | [4] | An ischyromyid. | |||
Tillomys | T. senex | Lower and middle Adobe Town Member. [3] | Left dentary and teeth. [3] | A sciuravid. | |
Uintaparamys | U. bridgerensis | Lower and middle Adobe Town Member. [3] | Left and right dentaries. [3] | An ischyromyid. | |
Ungulates | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
Amynodon | A. advenus | Middle unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | An amynodontid. | ||
Dilophodon | D. minusculus | Middle unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | A helaletid. | ||
Dolichorhinus | D. sp. | Middle unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | A brontothere. | ||
Eobasileus | E. cornutus | Adobe Town Member. [10] | A dinoceratan. | ||
Eomoropus | E. amarorum | Middle unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | An eomoropid. | ||
Epihippus | E. gracilis | Upper unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | An equid. | ||
cf. Forstercooperia | cf. F. minuta | Middle unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | A paracerathere, now reassigned to the genus Pappaceras . | ||
Harpagolestes | H. immanis | Adobe Town Member. [6] | A mesonychid. | ||
H. sp. indet. | Mandibular fragments. [6] | A mesonychid. | |||
Helaletes | H. nanus | Kinney Rim Member. [9] | A helaletid. | ||
Heliosus | H. apophis | Lower Adobe Town Member. [11] | Dentary and associated humerus. [11] | A helohyid. | |
Hyrachyus | H. eximius | Kinney Rim Member and lower unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | A rhinoceratoid. | ||
H. modestus | Kinney Rim Member and lower unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | A rhinoceratoid. | |||
Isectolophus | I. latidens | Lower unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | An isectolophid. | ||
Mesatirhinus | M. sp. | Kinney Rim Member and lower unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] [12] | Over 20 partial skeletons. [12] | A brontothere. | |
Mesonychia? | Mesonychia? gen. indet. | Teeth. [6] | A mesonychian. | ||
Metarhinus | M. sp. | Middle unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | A brontothere. | ||
Orohippus | O. sp. | [9] | An equid. | ||
Pappaceras | P. minuta | Middle unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | A paracerathere. | ||
Simidectes | aff. S.? | Left molar. [6] | A mesonychian. | ||
Synoplotherium | S. lanius | Adobe Town Member. [6] | A mesonychid. | ||
S. sp. indet. | [6] | A mesonychid. | |||
Telmatherium | T. sp. | Lower unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | A brontothere. | ||
Triplopus | T. cubitalis | Middle unit of the Adobe Town Member. [9] | A hyracodontid. | ||
T. implicatus | [9] | A hyracodontid. | |||
Uintatherium | U. anceps | Adobe Town Member. [10] | A dinoceratan. | ||
Color key
| Notes Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; |
Birds | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
Bathornis | B. grallator | "Sand Wash Basin, Wyoming, locality 196". [13] | Partial skeleton (CM 9377). [13] | A bathornithid. | |
Neocathartes | N. grallator | "Sand Wash Basin, Wyoming, locality 196". [13] | Considered a junior synonym of Bathornis grallator. | ||
Testudines | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
Anosteira | A. pulchra | Adobe Town Member (Sweetwater County, Wyoming). [14] | FMNH PR966, a near-complete cranium. [14] | A carettochelyid turtle. | |
Carettochelyidae is a family of cryptodiran turtles belonging to the Trionychia. It contains only a single living species, the pig-nosed turtle native to New Guinea and Northern Australia. Stem-group carettochelyids are known from the Cretaceous of Asia, with the family being widely distributed across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa during much of the Cenozoic.
Miacis is an extinct genus of placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in North America from the early to middle Eocene.
The John Day Formation is a series of rock strata exposed in the Picture Gorge district of the John Day River basin and elsewhere in north-central Oregon in the United States. The Picture Gorge exposure lies east of the Blue Mountain uplift, which cuts southwest–northeast through the Horse Heaven mining district northeast of Madras. Aside from the Picture Gorge district, which defines the type, the formation is visible on the surface in two other areas: another exposure is in the Warm Springs district west of the uplift, between it and the Cascade Range, and the third is along the south side of the Ochoco Mountains. All three exposures, consisting mainly of tuffaceous sediments and pyroclastic rock rich in silica, lie unconformably between the older rocks of the Clarno Formation below and Columbia River basalts above.
The Fort Union Formation is a geologic unit containing sandstones, shales, and coal beds in Wyoming, Montana, and parts of adjacent states. In the Powder River Basin, it contains important economic deposits of coal, uranium, and coalbed methane.
Procaimanoidea is an extinct genus of alligatorid from the Eocene of North America. It was named posthumously in 1946 by Charles W. Gilmore; the type species is P. utahensis, from the Uintan of Utah. It is based on USNM 15996, a nearly complete skull and partial left hind leg. A second species, P. kayi, was named in 1941 by C.C. Mook as a species of Hassiacosuchus, for remains from the Bridgerian of Wyoming. It was reassigned to Procaimanoidea in 1967 by Wassersug and Hecht.
Vulpavus is an extinct paraphyletic genus of placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in North America from the early to middle Eocene.
Sinopa is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct family Sinopidae within extinct order Hyaenodonta, that lived in North America and Asia from the early to middle Eocene.
This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2012, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.
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This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2013, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.
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The San Jose Formation is an Early Eocene geologic formation in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and Colorado.
The Uinta Formation is a geologic formation in northeastern Utah. The name appears on a geologic map accompanying the Clarence King Fortieth Parallel report for 1876 but not defined until 1878 as the Uinta Group. As defined, it consisted of all Tertiary strata overlying the Green River Formation and was composed of coarse, conglomeratic sandstones, passing up into finer-grained sandstones and calcareous mudstones. Numerous vertebrate fossils were collected and described by Othniel C. Marsh of Yale University. The formation was subsequently subdivided into three informal horizons based on mammalian fossils. Horace Wood proposed the name Wagonhound Member for Uinta A+B and Myton Member for Uinta C. However, these names are not based on lithology, but on mammalian vertebrate faunas. For that reason, they have not been accepted as proper lithostratigraphic names.
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This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2011, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.
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Wyonycteris is a genus of small mammals that existed in the late Paleocene and early Eocene epochs. The type species is Wyonycteris chalix, which lived in Wyoming during the Clarkforkian North American Land Mammal Age of the Paleocene and was originally proposed to be an early form of insectivorous bat. Later re-examination of the material has put this alliance in doubt, and the genus has instead been proposed as belonging to the subfamily Placentidentinae, within the family Nyctitheriidae. Similar fossil material of the same time period found in Europe was later discovered and described as new species, Wyonycteris richardi.
Achaenodon is an extinct artiodactyl mammal, possibly belonging to the family Helohyidae. It lived in the mid-late Eocene and its fossil remains have been found in North America.