Williams Fork Formation
{{Short description|Geological Formation in Colorado}}
{{Infobox rockunit
| name = Williams Fork Formation
| image =
| caption =
| type = Geological formation
| period = Campanian - Maastrichtian
| age = Campanian (Edmontonian)
~{{fossil range|73|70}}
| prilithology = Mudstone
| otherlithology = Sandstone
| namedfor =
| namedby =
| region = Colorado
| country = United States
| coordinates = {{coord|40.0|N|108.8|W|display=inline,title}}
| paleocoordinates = {{coord|47.5|N|80.3|W|display=inline}}
| unitof = Mesaverde Group
| subunits =
| underlies =
| overlies =
| thickness =
| extent =
| area =
| map = {{Location map+ | United States#Colorado
| relief = 1
| width = 250
| float = center
| places = {{Location map~ | United States#Colorado
| lat_deg = 40.0
| lon_deg = -108.8
| mark = Lightgreen pog.svg
| marksize = 12
}}
}}
| map_caption =
}}
The Williams Fork Formation is a Campanian to Maastrichtian (Edmontonian) geologic formation of the Mesaverde Group in Colorado. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, most notably Pentaceratops sternbergii,.{{cite journal|last1=Diem|first1=Steve|last2=Archibald|first2=James D.|title=Range extension of southern chasmosaurine Ceratopsian dinosaurs into northwestern Colorado|journal=Journal of Paleontology|date=2005|volume=79|issue=2|pages=251–258|doi=10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079<0251:REOSCC>2.0.CO;2|bibcode=2005JPal...79..251D |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-paleontology/article/range-extension-of-southern-chasmosaurine-ceratopsian-dinosaurs-into-northwestern-colorado/27F4029AED9999BD1238D6D450BF4277|access-date=21 September 2016|citeseerx=10.1.1.538.7263|s2cid=17715685 }} Other fossils found in the formation are the ammonite Lewyites, tyrannosaurids, dromaeosaurids, troodontids, nodosaurids, ankylosaurids, hadrosaurids, hybodonts, neosuchian crocodylomorphs, and the mammals Glasbius and Meniscoessus collomensis.[https://paleobiodb.org/classic/displayCollResults?collection_no=14497 Jubb Creek] at Fossilworks.org[https://paleobiodb.org/classic/displayCollResults?collection_no=76715 Rangely South (SDNHM)] at Fossilworks.org
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
= Bibliography =
- {{cite book |editor-last=Weishampel |editor-first=David B. |editor-last2=Dodson |editor-first2=Peter |editor-last3=Osmólska |editor-first3=Halszka |year=2004 |title=The Dinosauria|edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtZFDb_iw40C |location=Berkeley|publisher= University of California Press |pages=1–880 |accessdate=2019-02-21|isbn=0-520-24209-2}}
- Diem, Stephen Daniel. (1999). Vertebrate Faunal Analysis of the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation, Rio Blanco County, Colorado [Master’s Thesis]. San Diego State University.
Further reading
- Archibald, J. D. (1987). Late Cretaceous (Judithian and Edmontonian) Vertebrates and Geology of the Williams Fork Formation. N.W. Colorado. In P. J. Currie, E. H. Koster, & Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (Eds.), Fourth Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems: Drumheller, August 10–14, 1987: Short Papers (Rev. ed, pp. 7–11). Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
- Brand, N., Heckert, A., Sanchez, I., Foster, J., Hunt-Foster, R., & Eberle, J. (2022). New Upper Cretaceous Microvertebrate Assemblage from the Williams Fork Formation, northwestern Colorado, U.S.A., and its Paleoenvironmental Implications. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 67(3), 579–600. https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00934.2021.
- Cifelli, R. L., Eberle, J. J., Lofgren, D. L., Lillegraven, J. A., & Clemens, W. A. (2004). Mammalian Biochronology of the Latest Cretaceous. In M. O. Woodburne (Ed.), Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Biostratigraphy and Geochronology (pp. 21–42). Columbia University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/wood13040.8.
- Diem, Stephen Daniel. (1999). Vertebrate Faunal Analysis of the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation, Rio Blanco County, Colorado [Master’s Thesis]. San Diego State University.
- Noll, M. D. (1998). Sedimentology of the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation, Rio Blanco County, Northwestern Colorado [Master’s Thesis]. San Diego State University. https://digitallibrary.sdsu.edu/islandora/object/sdsu%3A17
- J. R. Foster and R. K. Hunt-Foster. 2015. First report of a giant neosuchian (Crocodyliformes) in the Williams Fork Formation (Upper Cretaceous: Campanian) of Colorado. Cretaceous Research 55:66-73
- Lockley, M. G., Smith, J. A., & King, M. R. (2018). First reports of turtle tracks from the Williams Fork Formation (‘Mesaverde’ Group), Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) of western Colorado. Cretaceous Research, 84, 474–482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2017.11.001.
- W. J. Kennedy, W. A. Cobban, and G. R. Scott. 2000. Heteromorph ammonites from the Upper Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) Baculites cuneatus and Baculites reesidei zones of the Pierre Shale in Colorado, USA. Acta Geologica Polonica 50:1-20
- J. A. Lillegraven. 1987. Stratigraphic and evolutionary implications of a new species of Meniscoessus (Multituberculata, Mammalia) from the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation, Moffat County, Colorado. Dakoterra 3:46-56
- Sullivan, R.M., and Lucas, S.G. 2006. "[http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/science/bulletins/35/sci_bulletin35_2.pdf The Kirtlandian land-vertebrate "age" – faunal composition, temporal position and biostratigraphic correlation in the nonmarine Upper Cretaceous of western North America]." New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Bulletin 35:7-29.
{{Chronostratigraphy of Colorado|Mesozoic state=expanded}}
Category:Geologic formations of Colorado