Moenkopi Wash burrow site (Jurassic of the United States)

Where: Coconino County, Arizona (36.1° N, 111.3° W: paleocoordinates 16.1° N, 51.0° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Dinosaur Canyon Member (Moenave Formation), Hettangian (201.3 - 199.3 Ma)

• 2 beds, 73 to 77 m above base of formation.

•Most of the Moenave Formation is the Dinosaur Canyon Member. In the Moenave type section, near Tuba City, Arizona, all of the Moenave section is Dinosaur Canyon Member, as it is throughout the Moenave outcrop belt along the Echo Cliffs and Ward's Terrace of northern Arizona. However, north of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and in southwestern Utah, the upper part of the Moenave Formation is lacustrine strata. These strata are the Whitmore Point Member.

•Lucas et al. (2011: Palaeo3 302: 194-205) proposed, on the basis of multiple lines of biostratigraphic evidence, that the Triassic–Jurassic boundary is placed within the middle part of the Whitmore Point Member of the Moenave Formation where this member is present, and high in the Dinosaur Canyon Member elsewhere. The "Whitmore Point assemblage" of vertebrate taxa, earliest Jurassic (Hettangian) in age. The underlying "Dinosaur Canyon assemblage", is latest Triassic (Rhaetian) in age.

•

•Because the stratigraphic position of this site within the Moenave is unclear, a Rhaetian–Hettangian age is given.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: eolian; fine-grained, red sandstone and bioturbated, fine-grained, red sandstone

• "deposits of eolian sand stabilized by moisture and vegetation"
• "Both beds consist of very well-sorted, fine-grained sandstone with a pink-orange hue. The lower bed is bleached at its upper contact and also displays rhizoliths. Bioturbation has eliminated all sedimentary structures in the lower bed, whereas the upper bed preserves relict high-angle cross-bedding"

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: cast, mold/impression, trace

Collection methods: surface (in situ),

Primary reference: L. H. Tanner and S. G. Lucas. 2009. Tetrapod trace fossils from lowermost Jurassic strata of the Moenave Formation, northern Arizona, USA. Volumina Jurassica 6:133-141 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 225153: authorized by Matthew Carrano, entered by Matthew Carrano on 27.04.2022

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Osteichthyes
 Therapsida - Tritylodontidae
? Tritylodontidae indet.
? Tritylodontidae indet. Cope 1884 mammaliamorph
fossorial burrows