Summary
The Hornerstown Formation is a Paleogene or latest Mesozoic geologic formation in New Jersey.[2] The age of these deposits have been controversial. While most fossils are of animals types known from the earliest Cenozoic era, several fossils of otherwise exclusively Cretaceous age have been found. These include remains of the shark Squalicorax, several types of non-avian dinosaurs, the teleost fish Enchodus, several species of ammonite, and marine lizards referred to the genus Mosasaurus. Some of these remains show signs of severe abrasion and erosion, however, implying that they are probably re-worked from older deposits. Most of these fossils are restricted to the lowest point in the formation, one rich in fossils and known as the Main Fossiliferous Layer, or MFL. Other explanations for the out-of-place fossils in the MFL is that they represent a time-averaged assemblage that built up and remained unburied during a time of low sediment deposition, or that they were stirred up from deeper in the sediment and deposited together during a tsunami.[3]
| Hornerstown Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Maastrichtian-Danian [1] | |
| Type | Geological formation |
| Underlies | Vincentown Formation |
| Overlies | New Egypt Formation and Tinton Formation |
| Location | |
| Region | New Jersey |
| Country | USA |
Vertebrate paleofauna edit
Birds edit
| Birds of the Hornerstown Formation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Abundance | Notes | |
|
A. rex.[4] |
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|
G. velox[4] |
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|
L. edwardsianus[4] |
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|
P. littoralis[4] |
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|
P. vagans[4] |
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|
T. priscus[4] |
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|
T. glauconiticus[4] |
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Non-Avian Dinosaurs edit
| Dinosaurs of the Hornerstown Formation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Abundance | Notes | |
|
D. aquilunguis |
Gloucester County | Maastrichtian | ||||
Turtles edit
| Testudines of the Hornerstown Formation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Abundance | Notes | |
|
O. emarginatus |
Maastrichtian-Danian | |||||
| Euclastes | E. wielandi | found as a separate genus from the cranial material of Osteopygis | ||||
Crocodylomorphs edit
| Crocodylomorphs of the Hornerstown Formation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Abundance | Notes | |
|
B. harlani. |
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| Hyposaurus[7] | H. rogersii | |||||
Ray-finned Fishes edit
| Actinopterygii of the Hornerstown Formation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Abundance | Notes | |
|
Iridopristis[8] |
I. parrisi[8] |
Sewell, New Jersey | Danian | A stem-lineage member of Holocentridae. | ||
See also edit
References edit
- ^ a b Gentry, A.D.; Kiernan, C.R.; Parham, J.F. (2022). "A large non-marine turtle from the Upper Cretaceous of Alabama and a review of North American "Macrobaenids"". The Anatomical Record. doi:10.1002/ar.25054.
- ^ Weishampel, et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution." Pp. 517-607.
- ^ Gallagher, W.B. (2005). "Recent mosasaur discoveries from New Jersey and Delaware, USA: stratigraphy, taphonomy and implications for mosasaur extinction." Netherlands Journal of Geosciences — Geologie en Mijnbouw, 84(3): 241-245. [1] Archived 2012-09-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "3.22 New Jersey, United States; 7. Hornerstown Formation," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 586.
- ^ Olsson, R.K. (1960). "Foraminifera of latest Cretaceous and earliest Tertiary age in the New Jersey coastal plain". Journal of Paleontology. 34: 1–58.
- ^ Cossette, A. P., and C. A. Brochu. 2018. A new specimen of the alligatoroid Bottosaurus harlani and the early history of character evolution in alligatorids. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI:10.1080/02724634.2018.1486321.
- ^ Morgan, Donald J (December 2018). "PRESENCE OF A DYROSAURID NEOSUCHIAN IN THE SEVERN/BRIGHTSEAT FORMATION OF MARYLAND". The Journal of the Delaware Valley Paleontological Society. X: 91 to 104.
- ^ a b Andrews, J. V.; Schein, J. P.; Friedman, M. (2023). "An earliest Paleocene squirrelfish (Teleostei: Beryciformes: Holocentroidea) and its bearing on the timescale of holocentroid evolution". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 21 (1). doi:10.1080/14772019.2023.2168571.
Bibliography edit
- Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. 861 pp. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.