An anachronistic Clarkforkian mammal fauna from the Paleocene Fort Union Formation (Great Divide Basin, Wyoming, USA).
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Robert Anemone, Professor and Department Head (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Abstract: The Clarkforkian (latest Paleocene) North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA) remains a relatively poorly
sampled biostratigraphic interval at the close of the Paleocene epoch that is best known from the Bighorn Basin of
northwestern Wyoming. A period of global warming between the cooler early and middle Paleocene and the
extreme warming of the early Eocene, the Clarkforkian witnessed significant floral and faunal turnover with
important ramifications for the development of Cenozoic biotas. The combination of warming global climates
with mammalian turnover (including likely intercontinental dispersals) marks the Clarkforkian and the succeeding
Wasatchian (Earliest Eocene) NALMAs as periods of intense interest to paleobiologists and other earth scientists
concerned with aspects of biostratigraphy and with the biotic effects of climate change in the past. In this paper
we describe a new Clarkforkian mammalian fauna from the Great Divide Basin of southwestern Wyoming with
some surprising faunal elements that differ from the typical suite of taxic associations found in Clarkforkian
assemblages of the Bighorn Basin. Several different scenarios are explored to explain this “anachronistic” assemblage
of mammals from southern Wyoming in relation to the typical patterns found in northern Wyoming, including
the concepts of basin-margin faunas, latitudinal and climatic gradients, and a chronologically transitional fauna.
We suggest that the observed faunal and biostratigraphic differences between southern and northern Wyoming
faunas most likely result from latitudinal and associated climatic differences, with floral and faunal changes being
reflected somewhat earlier in the south during this period of marked climate change.
An anachronistic Clarkforkian mammal fauna from the Paleocene Fort Union Formation (Great Divide Basin, Wyoming, USA).
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Language: English
- Date: 2009
- Keywords
- clarkforkian, paleocne-eocene boundary, paleoclimatology, global warming, anthropology