Vale Formation
{{Short description|Geologic formation in Texas, United States}}
{{Infobox rockunit
| name = Vale Formation
| image =
| caption =
| type = Formation
| age = Early Permian,
Leonardian (Kungurian?){{fossilrange|Kungurian|Kungurian|}}
| period = Permian
| prilithology = mudstone, claystone, siltstone
| otherlithology = shale, sandstone, conglomerate
| namedfor = Vale Post Office (Runnels County)
| namedby = Beede & Waite, 1918
| region = {{Flag|Texas}}
| country = {{Flag|United States}}
| coordinates =
| unitof = Clear Fork Group
| subunits = Standpipe Limestone, Brushy Creek Sandstone, Cedar Top Sandstone
| underlies = Choza Formation
| overlies = Arroyo Formation
| thickness = {{Convert|160|m|ft}}
| extent =
| area =
| map =
| map_caption =
}}
The Vale Formation is a geological formation in north-central Texas, a component of the Texas red beds preserving sediments and fossils from the Early Permian Leonardian series. It occupies the middle part of the Clear Fork Group, above the Arroyo Formation and below the Choza Formation.{{Cite journal |last1=Olson |first1=Everett C. |last2=Mead |first2=James G. |date=March 1982 |title=The Vale Formation (Lower Permian) Its Vertebrates and Paleoecology |url=https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/items/2bb7137a-6ccf-435b-b870-cf96b4c6fa05 |journal=Texas Memorial Museum Bulletin |volume=29 |pages=1–46}} Some sources consider the Vale Formation to be merely an informal subunit of the Clear Fork Formation, thus renaming it to the Middle Clear Fork Formation.{{Cite journal |last1=Nelson |first1=W. John |last2=Hook |first2=Robert W. |last3=Chaney |first3=Dan S. |date=2013 |title=Lithostratigraphy of the Lower Permian (Leonardian) Clear Fork Formation of north-central Texas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5f4oCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA286 |journal=New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin |volume=60 |pages=286–311}}
Geology
The Vale Formation is named after a former post office in the vicinity of Ballinger in Runnels County. At its broadest conception, the Vale Formation is a unit of primarily terrestrial sediments up to {{Convert|160|m|ft}} thick, stretching from the Texas-Oklahoma border at Wilbarger County, as far south as Runnels County. The base of the Vale Formation is marked by either a limestone bed (the Standpipe Limestone, south of Abilene), or in some northern areas, a sharp unconformity. Likewise, its contact with the Choza Formation is marked by the base of the Bullwagon Dolomite, which is most well-exposed south of Haskell, or by evaporite beds in northern exposures such as Knox County.{{Cite journal |last=Olson |first=Everett Claire |date=7 March 1958 |title=Fauna of the Vale and Choza: 14, Summary, Review, and Integration of the Geology and the Faunas |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/56114#page/3/mode/1up |journal=Fieldiana: Geology |volume=10 |issue=32 |pages=397–448}}
Limestone is rare in the fully terrestrial northern red beds, complicating the distinction between the three formations of the Clear Fork Group. To resolve this problem, some geologists, like Nelson et al. (2013), consider the northern part of the Clear Fork Group to be a single formation divided into three informal subunits. In the northern area, major sandstone beds are the most useful stratigraphic markers for distinguishing these informal subunits. The Middle Clear Fork Formation extends from the base of the Brushy Creek Sandstone to the base of the Rt. 1919 Sandstone. Another major sandstone bed, the Cedar Top Sandstone, occurs between these two levels.
As with much of the Texas red beds, the dominant sediments (around 80% by volume) are fine-grained red floodplain deposits such as mudstones, clays, shales, siltstones, and paleosols. Localized beds and lenses of sandstone and conglomerate recorded active meandering river channels, abandoned channels (such as oxbow lakes), and crevasse splays.{{Citation |last1=DiMichele |first1=William A. |title=From wetlands to wet spots: Environmental tracking and the fate of Carboniferous elements in Early Permian tropical floras |date=2006 |work=Wetlands through Time |url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/557/chapter/3802491 |publisher=Geological Society of America |language=en |doi=10.1130/2006.2399(11) |isbn=978-0-8137-2399-0 |last2=Tabor |first2=Neil J. |last3=Chaney |first3=Dan S. |last4=Nelson |first4=W. John}}{{Cite journal |last1=Simon |first1=Sharane S.T. |last2=Gibling |first2=Martin R. |date=2017 |editor-last=Fielding |editor-first=Chris |title=Fine-grained meandering systems of the Lower Permian Clear Fork Formation of north-central Texas, USA: Lateral and oblique accretion on an arid plain |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307918002 |journal=Sedimentology |language=en |volume=64 |issue=3 |pages=714–746 |doi=10.1111/sed.12322 |issn=0037-0746}}{{Citation |last1=Simon |first1=Sharane S.T. |title=An exhumed fine-grained meandering channel in the lower Permian Clear Fork Formation, north-central Texas: Processes of mud accumulation and the role of vegetation in channel dynamics |date=2018-12-10 |work=Fluvial Meanders and Their Sedimentary Products in the Rock Record |pages=149–171 |editor-last=Ghinassi |editor-first=Massimiliano |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119424437.ch6 |access-date=2024-06-03 |edition=1 |publisher=Wiley |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781119424437.ch6 |isbn=978-1-119-42446-8 |last2=Gibling |first2=Martin R. |last3=Dimichele |first3=William A. |last4=Chaney |first4=Dan S. |last5=Koll |first5=Rebecca |editor2-last=Colombera |editor2-first=Luca |editor3-last=Mountney |editor3-first=Nigel P. |editor4-last=Reesink |editor4-first=Arnold Jan H.}} The conglomerates of the Vale Formation occur in two distinct forms, either large light-colored fragments or (particularly in the northern area) dark brown pebbles derived from the surrounding clay.{{Cite journal |last1=Simon |first1=Sharane S.T. |last2=Gibling |first2=Martin R. |date=2017 |title=Pedogenic Mud Aggregates Preserved In A Fine-Grained Meandering Channel In the Lower Permian Clear Fork Formation, North-Central Texas, U.S.A. |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314304577 |journal=Journal of Sedimentary Research |language=en |volume=87 |issue=3 |pages=230–252 |doi=10.2110/jsr.2017.12 |bibcode=2017JSedR..87..230S |issn=1527-1404}} Light even-bedded clay (pond deposits) may occasionally be found.{{Cite journal |last1=Simon |first1=Sharane S.T. |last2=Gibling |first2=Martin R. |last3=DiMichele |first3=William A. |last4=Chaney |first4=Dan S. |last5=Looy |first5=Cindy V. |last6=Tabor |first6=Neil J. |date=2016 |title=An Abandoned-Channel Fill with Exquisitely Preserved Plants in Redbeds of the Clear Fork Formation, Texas, USA: An Early Permian Water-Dependent Habitat on the Arid Plains of Pangea |url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/jsedres/article/86/8/944-964/321161 |journal=Journal of Sedimentary Research |language=en |volume=86 |issue=8 |pages=944–964 |doi=10.2110/jsr.2016.60 |bibcode=2016JSedR..86..944S |issn=1527-1404}}
Though quite fossiliferous, the fossils of the Vale Formation have not been studied as long as older parts of the Texas red beds, some of which have been prospected since the 1870s. Geologists of the University of Texas discovered the first fossils from the Vale Formation in the 1930s, at the Sid McAdams locality in Taylor County. Since 1946, many more finds were recovered from Knox, Baylor, and Foard counties under the direction of University of Chicago paleontologist Everett C. Olson, who described the northern Vale fossil fauna in detail over the course of the 1950s.{{Cite journal |last=Olson |first=Everett Claire |date=1948 |title=A Preliminary Report on Vertebrates from the Permian Vale Formation of Texas |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/625500 |journal=The Journal of Geology |language=en |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=186–198 |doi=10.1086/625500 |issn=0022-1376 |jstor=30063387|bibcode=1948JG.....56..186O }} Other notable sites include the Stamford locality in Haskell County (discovered by Dalquest and Maymay in 1963),{{Cite journal |last1=Dalquest |first1=Walter W. |last2=Mamay |first2=Sergius H. |date=1963 |title=A Remarkable Concentration of Permian Amphibian Remains in Haskell County, Texas |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/626938 |journal=The Journal of Geology |language=en |volume=71 |issue=5 |pages=641–644 |doi=10.1086/626938 |bibcode=1963JG.....71..641D |issn=0022-1376}} the Blackwood locality in Taylor County (discovered by David Berman in 1970), and the Mud Hill locality (described by Bryan Gee et al. in 2018), also in Taylor County.{{Cite journal |last1=Gee |first1=Bryan M. |last2=Rosscoe |first2=Steven J. |last3=Scott |first3=Diane |last4=Ostlien |first4=Judie |last5=Reisz |first5=Robert R. |date=2018 |title=Faunal overview of the Mud Hill locality from the early Permian Vale Formation of Taylor County, Texas |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022336018000264/type/journal_article |journal=Journal of Paleontology |language=en |volume=92 |issue=6 |pages=1092–1106 |doi=10.1017/jpa.2018.26 |bibcode=2018JPal...92.1092G |issn=0022-3360}} Over 60 small fossil sites are scattered south of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River.
Paleobiota
= Synapsids =
= Reptiles =
The largest true reptile known from the Vale Formation is an indeterminate moradisaurine captorhinid represented by an enormous tooth plate, at least {{Convert|11.6|cm|in}} in length. This tooth plate was so large it was originally considered to be from an unnamed species of edaphosaurid, which would have made it the youngest known member of that family.{{Cite journal |last=Olson |first=Everett Claire |date=31 May 1956 |title=Fauna of the Vale and Choza: 13, Diadectes, Xenacanthus, and Specimens of Uncertain Affinities |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/21659#page/5/mode/1up |journal=Fieldiana: Geology |volume=10 |issue=27 |pages=329–334}} As a moradisaurine fossil, it corresponds to a skull around {{Convert|35|cm|in}} long, larger than Labidosaurikos meachami but smaller than Moradisaurus grandis.{{Cite journal |last1=Modesto |first1=Sean P. |last2=Flear |first2=Vonica J. |last3=Dilney |first3=Melissa M. |last4=Reisz |first4=Robert R. |date=2016-11-01 |title=A large moradisaurine tooth plate from the Lower Permian of Texas and its biostratigraphic implications |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2016.1221832 |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |language=en |volume=36 |issue=6 |pages=e1221832 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2016.1221832 |bibcode=2016JVPal..36E1832M |issn=0272-4634}}
= Amphibians =
An indeterminate hapsidopareiid microsaur is known from the Mud Hill locality. It is potentially one of the youngest known microsaurs, apart from a few rhynchonkids known from Choza-equivalent strata near Norman, Oklahoma.
= Fish =
= Invertebrates =
A few invertebrate fossils are known from the Sid McAdams locality. These include freshwater bivalves (?Palaenodonta) and a single well-preserved pygocephalomorph crustacean, Mamayocaris jespeni, a species which is abundant in Permian sediments of South Dakota.
= Plants =
Plant fossils of the middle Clear Fork are most well-preserved in fine-grained abandoned river channel deposits. Some abandoned channel sites are dominated by walchian conifers, Taeniopteris, and "comioid" peltasperms (Auritifolia). Others have a high proportion of woody gigantopterids (Evolsonia), Taeniopteris, and marattialean tree ferns. Tree ferns were probably most specialized for swampy areas alongside permanent water, while conifers occupied dry uplands. Peltasperms and gigantopterids were accustomed to intermediate conditions: well-drained soils with a high water table. A diverse array of insect damage is reported from leaf fossils, with particular preference towards Auritifolia and Taniopteris.{{Cite journal |last1=Schachat |first1=Sandra R. |last2=Labandeira |first2=Conrad C. |last3=Gordon |first3=Jessie |last4=Chaney |first4=Dan |last5=Levi |first5=Stephanie |last6=Halthore |first6=Maya N. |last7=Alvarez |first7=Jorge |date=2014 |title=Plant-Insect Interactions from Early Permian (Kungurian) Colwell Creek Pond, North-Central Texas: The Early Spread of Herbivory in Riparian Environments |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/677679 |journal=International Journal of Plant Sciences |language=en |volume=175 |issue=8 |pages=855–890 |doi=10.1086/677679 |issn=1058-5893}}
| class="wikitable" align="center"
! colspan="4" align="center" |Plants of the Vale Formation |
| Genus
!Species !Notes !Images |
|---|
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Auritifolia{{Cite journal |last1=Chaney |first1=Dan S. |last2=Mamay |first2=Sergius H. |last3=DiMichele |first3=William A. |last4=Kerp |first4=Hans |date=2009 |title=Auritifolia gen. nov., Probable Seed Plant Foliage with Comioid Affinities from the Early Permian of Texas, U.S.A. |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230067642 |journal=International Journal of Plant Sciences |language=en |volume=170 |issue=2 |pages=247–266 |doi=10.1086/595293 |issn=1058-5893}}
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |A. waggoneria | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Large "comioid" peltasperm fronds up to {{Convert|40|cm|in}} in length. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Calamites
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |C. sp. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Sphenophyte (horsetail) fragments.{{Cite journal |last1=Chaney |first1=D.S. |last2=DiMichele |first2=W.A. |date=2007 |editor-last=Wong |editor-first=T.E. |title=Paleobotany of the classic redbeds (Clear Fork Group – Early Permian) of north central Texas |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237327313 |journal=Proceedings of the XVTH International Congress on Carboniferous and Permian Stratigraphy. Utrecht, the Netherlands |pages=357–367}} | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Callipteris
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |C. sp. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |"Callipterid" seed ferns. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Cathaysiopteris{{Cite journal |last=Mamay |first=Sergius H. |date=1986 |title=New species of Gigantopteridaceae |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47050#page/327/mode/1up |journal=Phytologia |volume=61 |issue=5 |pages=311–315|doi=10.5962/bhl.part.6538 |doi-access=free }}
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |C. yochelsonii | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Large gigantopterid leaves up to {{Convert|20|cm|in}} in length. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Comia
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Large "comioid" peltasperm fronds up to {{Convert|30|cm|in}} in length. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Cordaites
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |C. sp. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Strap-shaped leaves of a conifer-like gymnosperm. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Evolsonia{{Cite journal |last=Mamay |first=Sergius H. |date=1989 |title=EVOLSONIA, A NEW GENUS OF GIGANTOPTERIDACEAE FROM THE LOWER PERMIAN VALE FORMATION, NORTH-CENTRAL TEXAS |url=https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1537-2197.1989.tb15111.x |journal=American Journal of Botany |language=en |volume=76 |issue=9 |pages=1299–1311 |doi=10.1002/j.1537-2197.1989.tb15111.x |issn=0002-9122}}
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |E. texana | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Very large gigantopterid leaves, at least {{Convert|80|cm|in}} in length. Previously considered specimens of Gigantopteris. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Nanshanopteris
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |N. sp. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |"Supaioid" peltasperm foliage, formerly known as Brongniartites. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Odontopteris
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |O. sp. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Medullosalean fronds of the Mixoneura type. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Pecopteris
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |P. sp. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Marattialean fern leaves. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Phasmatocycas?
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |P.? sp. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |A fragmentary branch of a cycad-like gymnosperm, bearing seed-like organs.{{Cite journal |last=Mamay |first=Sergius H. |date=1976 |title=Paleozoic origin of the cycads |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0934/report.pdf |journal=Geological Survey Professional Paper |volume=934 |pages=1–48 |doi=10.3133/pp934}} | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Rhachiphyllum
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |R. sp. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Peltasperm foliage. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Sandrewia{{Cite journal |last=Mamay |first=Sergius H. |date=1975 |title=Sandrewia, n. gen., a problematical plant from the Lower Permian of Texas and Kansas |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0034666775900081 |journal=Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology |language=en |volume=20 |issue=1–2 |pages=75–83 |doi=10.1016/0034-6667(75)90008-1|bibcode=1975RPaPa..20...75M }}
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |S. texana | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Foliage of a plant of uncertain affinities. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Sphenophyllum
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |S. cf. thonii | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Fragmentary foliage of a fern-like plant. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Supaia
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |S. sp. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |"Supaioid" peltasperm foliage. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Taeniopteris
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |T. sp. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Smooth-sided leaves of cycad-like gymnosperms. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Walchia
| style="background:#D1FFCF;" |W. piniformis | style="background:#D1FFCF;" |Conifer foliage. | style="background:#D1FFCF;" | |
See also
{{Portal|Earth sciences|Texas|Paleontology}}
References
{{reflist}}