scholarly journals Effects of contemporaneous orogenesis on sedimentation in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, northern Utah and southwestern Wyoming

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Davis ◽  
Kurt W. Rudolph ◽  
Joel E. Saylor ◽  
Thomas J. Lapen ◽  
Julia S. Wellner
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Western Interior Basin ◽  
Northern Utah

Hadrosaurid migration: inferences based on stable isotope comparisons among Late Cretaceous dinosaur localities

Paleobiology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry C. Fricke ◽  
Raymond R. Rogers ◽  
Terry A. Gates
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Isotopic Signatures ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Ratios ◽  
Drinking Waters ◽  
Carbon And Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Western Interior Basin ◽  
Major Alteration

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios were measured for carbonate in samples of hadrosaurid tooth enamel and dentine, and gar scale ganoine and dentine from five geologically “contemporaneous“ (two-million-year resolution) and geographically distant late Campanian formations (Two Medicine, Dinosaur Park, Judith River, Kaiparowits, and Fruitland) in the Western Interior Basin. In all cases, isotopic offsets were observed between enamel and dentine from the same teeth, with dentine being characterized by higher and more variable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios. Isotopic offsets were also observed between gar ganoine and hadrosaur enamel in all sites analyzed. Both of these observations indicate that diagenetic overprinting of enamel isotope ratios did not entirely obfuscate primary signals. Decreases in carbon and oxygen isotope ratios were observed in hadrosaur enamel from east to west, and overlap in isotope ratios occurred only between two of the sampled sites (Dinosaur Park and Judith River Formations).The lack of isotopic overlap for enamel among localities could be due to diagenetic resetting of isotope ratios such that they reflect local groundwater effects rather than primary biogenic inputs. However, the large range in carbon isotope ratios, the consistent taxonomic offsets for enamel/ganoine data, and comparisons of enamel-dentine data from the same teeth all suggest that diagenesis is not the lone driver of the signal. In the absence of major alteration, the mostly likely explanation for the isotopic patterns observed is that hadrosaurids from the targeted formations were eating plants and drinking waters with distinct isotopic ratios. One implication of this reconstruction is that hadrosaurids in the Late Cretaceous of the Western Interior did not migrate to an extent that would obscure local isotopic signatures.

Late Santonian megaspore floras from the Gulf Coastal Plain (Georgia, USA)

2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Lupia
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
North America ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Gulf Coastal Plain ◽  
Two New Species ◽  
Western Interior Basin ◽  
Heterosporous Ferns

Fossil megaspore floras from the Late Cretaceous of North America have been studied extensively, but primarily from the Western Interior Basin. Two new megaspore floras are described from eastern North America along the Gulf Coastal Plain. Cumulatively, 10 genera and 16 species of megaspores are recognized from Allon, Georgia and along Upatoi Creek, Georgia (both late Santonian in age, ~84 Ma). Megaspores identified have affinities to both heterosporous lycopsids, e.g., Erlansonisporites, Minerisporites, and Paxillitriletes, and to heterosporous ferns, e.g., Ariadnaesporites, and Molaspora. Lycopsid megaspores are more diverse than fern megaspores in the Allon and the Upatoi Creek floras. Two new species—Erlansonisporites confundus n. sp. and Erlansonisporites potens n. sp.—are proposed.

Dynamic versus flexural controls of Late Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, USA

2014 ◽  
Vol 389 ◽  
pp. 221-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaofeng Liu ◽  
Dag Nummedal ◽  
Michael Gurnis
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Western Interior Basin

ALONG-STRIKE VARIATION IN GEOMETRY OF THE LATE CRETACEOUS WESTERN INTERIOR BASIN TRACKS MULTIPLE GEODYNAMIC SUBSIDENCE MECHANISMS

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Eichler ◽  
◽  
Joel Saylor ◽  
Julia Wellner ◽  
Kurt Rudolph ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Western Interior Basin

scholarly journals The first record of a trionychid turtle (Testudines: Trionychidae) from the Cretaceous of the Pacific Coast of North America

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Vavrek ◽  
Donald B. Brinkman
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
North America ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Pacific Coast ◽  
First Record ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Western Interior Basin ◽  
Cretaceous Deposits

Trionychid turtles were widespread throughout much of the Western Interior Basin of North America during the Cretaceous, represented by a wide variety of taxa. Despite their widespread abundance east of the Rocky Mountains, they have not previously been reported from Cretaceous deposits along the Pacific Coast of North America. We report here on an isolated trionychid costal from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The fossil was recovered from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian to Maastrichtian) Nanaimo Group, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. While the fossil is generically indeterminate, its presence adds an important datapoint in the biogeographic distribution of Trionychidae.  

scholarly journals Xiphactinus audax Leidy 1870 from the Puskwaskau Formation (Santonian to Campanian) of northwestern Alberta, Canada and the distribution of Xiphactinus in North America

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Vavrek ◽  
Alison M. Murray ◽  
Phil R. Bell
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Teleost Fish ◽  
Species Level ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Circle ◽  
Marine Deposits ◽  
Western Interior Basin ◽  
Northern Portion

Xiphactinus is one of the largest teleost fish known from the Late Cretaceous of North America, and has been found across much of the Western Interior Basin. Despite extensive Late Cretaceous marine deposits occurring in Alberta, there has previously been only two possible records of Xiphactinus from the province, neither of which has been diagnosable to the species level. We describe here a portion of the lower jaws, including teeth, of Xiphactinus audax from northeast of Grande Prairie, Alberta. The fossil has large, thecodont teeth that are circular in cross section and lack any carinae, and are highly variable in their overall size. This fossil is the first diagnostic material of X. audax from Alberta, and extends the range of the species by over a thousand kilometres. During the Late Cretaceous, the area the fossil was found in was near the Arctic Circle, and represents an important datapoint within the poorly known, northern portion of the Western Interior Basin.

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