Hotel Mesa East, OMNH V857 (Cretaceous to of the United States)

Also known as Hotel Mesa Quarry

Where: Grand County, Utah (38.8° N, 109.3° W: paleocoordinates 38.8° N, 63.4° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Ruby Ranch Member (Cedar Mountain Formation), Aptian to Aptian (125.0 - 100.5 Ma)

• "Stratigraphically, OMNHV857 lies in a sequence of Lower Cretaceous rocks interposed between the Morrison Formation (Kimmeridgian) below and the Dakota Formation (Cenomanian) above. Westward, these rocks are recognized as the Cedar Mountain Formation; eastward, the Burro Canyon Formation. The arbitrary dividing line between these entities is generally placed at the Colorado River (Stokes 1952; Tschudy et al. 1984) which technically places OMNHV857 within the Burro Canyon Formation. However, we will refer to the locality as belonging to the more widely recognized Cedar Mountain Formation, as it is in this formation that comparable specimens are known, and the stratigraphy and sedimentology do not change across the arbitrary border." (Taylor et al. 2011:76)

•"Stratigraphically, OMNH locality V857 lies within the Ruby Ranch Member, a few meters below the local contact with the Dakota Formation (see Kirkland et al. 1999: fig. 8). As a working hypothesis, we regard the fossils from the Hotel Mesa site as being Aptian–Albian" (Taylor et al. 2011: 77)

•Overall, based on zircon ages and chemostratigraphic studies, the Ruby Ranch Member ranges in age from ap-proximately middle Aptian to middle Albian (about 118 to 105 Ma) for the western Paradox Basin and northern San Rafael Swell. Other radiometric ages indicate the presence of upper Albian strata as well (Chure and others, 2010; Ludvigson and others, 2010a, 2015; Sprinkel and others, 2012)

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; pebbly, muddy sandstone

• "the fossil horizon, which is mainly sandstone with some pebbles and intermittent, irregular mudstone stringers, is about 40-50 cm thick"

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

• "Juvenile brachiosaurid ilium"

Collected by Cifelli, Kirkland, Hawes, Nydam in 1994–1995

Collection methods: bulk, salvage, quarrying, mechanical, sieve,

• OMNH: Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Site originally worked by private collectors; identity and disposition of those specimens not known.

Primary reference: J. I. Kirkland, R. L. Cifelli, B. B. Britt, D. L. Burge, F. L. DeCourten, J. G. Eaton, and J. M. Parrish. 1999. Distribution of vertebrate faunas in the Cedar Mountain Formation, east-central Utah. In D. D. Gillette (ed.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah. Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 99(1):201-218 [P. Barrett/T. Cleary/M. Carrano]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 97951: authorized by Matthew Carrano, entered by Matthew Oreska on 09.09.2010, edited by Richard Butler, Matthew Carrano and Philip Mannion

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Chondrichthyes
 Hybodontiformes - Polyacrodontidae
? Polyacrodus sp.2 Jaekel 1889 elasmobranch
 Hybodontiformes - Hybodontidae
Hybodontidae indet.2 Agassiz 1834 elasmobranch
Gnathostomata
  -
Osteichthyes
 Dipnoi - Ceratodontidae
Ceratodus sp.2 Agassiz 1838 lungfish
Reptilia
 Loricata -
Crocodyliformes indet.2 Hay 1930 crocodilian
Mesoeucrocodylia indet.3 Whetstone and Whybrow 1983 crocodilian
Bernissartia sp.2 Dollo 1883 crocodilian
 Loricata - Goniopholididae
Goniopholididae indet.2 Cope 1875 crocodilian
 Ornithischia -
? Tenontosaurus sp. Ostrom 1970 ornithopod
 Theropoda -
Theropoda indet.2 Marsh 1881 theropod
 Theropoda - Dromaeosauridae
Deinonychus sp.1 Ostrom 1969 maniraptoran
 Saurischia -
Brontomerus mcintoshi n. gen. n. sp.2
Brontomerus mcintoshi n. gen. n. sp.2 Taylor et al. 2011 sauropod
Actinopteri
 Lepisosteiformes - Lepisosteidae
? Lepisosteidae indet.2 Cuvier 1825 gar