Merycochoerus Quarry, Martin Canyon (Miocene of the United States)

Where: Logan County, Colorado (40.9° N, 103.3° W: paleocoordinates 41.6° N, 99.4° W)

• coordinate based on political unit

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Pawnee Creek Formation, Hemingfordian (20.4 - 16.0 Ma)

• originally called the "Martin Canyon Beds," but Galbreath 1953, shows these are the basal beds of the Pawnee Creek Formation (Hemingfordian)

Environment/lithology: fluvial; lithified, massive, bioturbated siltstone and fine-grained sandstone

• The quarry beds, which are composed of fine sands in thin, laminated beds or of fine, massive, noncalcareous silt with small, carbonaceous root marks, resemble Oligocene silts but on close inspection are found to be clearly separate from them lithologically.

Size class: macrofossils

• "Parts of bones, especially vertebrae, are often eaten away in a manner that suggests the work of insects (cf. Dermestes). The skeleton of Phlaocyon suffered considerably in this way. "

•"The specimen was found in the rock mixed with skulls and skeletons of two adult and three young Merycochœri, all within a space of six feet square."

Collected by Handel T. Martin in 1898; reposited in the AMNH

Primary reference: E. C. Galbreath. 1953. A contribution to the Tertiary geology and paleontology of northeastern Colorado. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions Vertebrata 4:1-120 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Marcot]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 17964: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 26.03.1995

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• AMNH quarry underlying the University of Kansas' Martin Canyon Quarry A, "horizon C" of Matthew
see also Galbreath 1953
Mammalia
 Carnivora - Canidae
Phlaocyon leucosteus n. sp. Matthew 1899 bone-crushing dog
 Perissodactyla - Equidae
Equidae indet. Gray 1821 horse
 Artiodactyla - Camelidae
Camelidae indet. Gray 1821 camel
 Artiodactyla - Merycoidodontidae
Merycochoerus magnus Loomis 1924 oreodont