Stratigraphy, taphonomy, and new discoveries from the Upper Jurassic (Morrison Formation: Brushy Basin Member) Peterson quarry, central New Mexico
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Andrew B. Heckert Ph.D., Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
Abstract: The Upper Jurassic Peterson quarry, located in Bernalillo County, central New Mexico, is New Mexico's most extensive and productive Jurassic dinosaur locality. The quarry is developed in the upper Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation, approximately 26 m below its contact with the overlying Jackpile Member. Bones occur low in a 3.3-m-thick sequence of well-indurated, troughcrossbedded, subarkosic sandstone. Preserved elements range from scattered bones to articulated assemblages of bones from a single individual, and the long bones are preferentially oriented along a generally east-west-trending axis. The occurrence of associated-to-articulated bones in a troughcrossbedded sandstone underlying a floodplain mudstone suggests deposition of the fossils in the mixed fill of an abandoned channel in a typical Brushy Basin Member fluvial system. Particularly important dinosaurs from the Peterson quarry include a large (1100 mm estimated. femoral length) Saurophaganax-like allosaurid theropod and the anterior portion of a diplodocid skull and lower jaws similar to Diplodocus. This specimen is one of less than a dozen Morrison Formation diplodocid skulls known and is particularly important because it is: (1) the only Jurassic sauropod skull material from New Mexico; (2) could represent a genus and/or species of Morrison diplodocid from which skull material is not yet known; and (3) provides insight into the replacement pattern of diplodocid teeth.
Stratigraphy, taphonomy, and new discoveries from the Upper Jurassic (Morrison Formation: Brushy Basin Member) Peterson quarry, central New Mexico
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Created on 11/20/2010
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Heckert, A.B., Lucas, S.G., Zeigler, K.E., Peterson, R.E., Peterson, R.E., and D’Andrea, N.V., (2000) Stratigraphy, taphonomy, and new discoveries from the Upper Jurassic (Morrison Formation: Brushy Basin Member) Peterson quarry, central New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 17 (Dinosaurs of New Mexico) p. 51-60. (ISSN 1524-4156) Archived in NC DOCKS with permission of the editor. The version of record is available at: http://econtent.unm.edu/
- Language: English
- Date: 2000