PBDB Collection

Big Muddy Creek: Arikareean, Wyoming

List of taxa

Where & when

Geology

Taphonomy & methods

Metadata & references

Taxonomic list

Mammalia - Rodentia - Florentiamyidae

	Sanctimus stouti n. sp. Wahlert 1983
	"Muddy Creek, Niobrara- Platte Co. boundary, Wyo.; Monroe Creek Formation" (6 measurements)

	Sanctimus simonisi n. sp. Wahlert 1983
	"Muddy Creek, Niobrara- Platte Co. boundary, Wyo.; Monroe Creek Formation"

	Florentiamys kennethi Wahlert 1983
	synonym of Florentiamys tiptoni
	"Muddy Creek, Niobrara-Platte Co. boundary, Wyo.; Monroe Creek Formation"
Mammalia - Carnivora - Canidae

	Otarocyon cooki (Macdonald 1963)	Wang et al. 1999
	"medial Arikareean" of Niobrara Co.

	Cormocyon haydeni Wang et al. 1999	Wang et al. 1999
	"West of Spanish Diggings, upper part of the lower Arikaree Group... Niobrara County"

	Archaeocyon falkenbachi n. sp. Wang et al. 1999	Wang et al. 1999
	"Muddy Creek Area, 1.5 mi west of bridge, 65 feet below the white layer, lower Arikaree Group (medial Arikareean)"

	Archaeocyon leptodus (Schlaikjer 1935)	Wang et al. 1999
	"Muddy Creek Area... medial Arikareean... Niobrara and Platte counties"

	Paraenhydrocyon josephi (Cope 1881)	Wang 1994
	3 mi W of Muddy Creek locality and Muddy Creek sensu stricto

	Enhydrocyon pahinsintewakpa (Macdonald 1963)	Wang 1994
	Muddy Creek locality, "high" beds and above "a white layer"; 1 mi W of Muddy Creek loc., low; 3 mi W of Muddy Creek loc., low and below the white layer; N side of Muddy Creek loc., high and middle
Mammalia - Perissodactyla - Rhinocerotidae

	Menoceras cooki (Peterson 1906)	Schlaikjer 1935
	synonym of Menoceras arikarense
Mammalia - Perissodactyla - Chalicotheriidae

	Moropus sp. Marsh 1877	Coombs 1978
	also mentioned by Coombs 1998, who seems unsure that this is actually Moropus
Mammalia - Camelidae

	Pseudolabis dakotensis Matthew 1904	Prothero 1996
	"Muddy Creek area, Goshen Co."

	Oxydactylus gibbi n. sp. Loomis 1911	Loomis 1911
	recombined as Miotylopus gibbi
	opposite Spanish Diggings Spring; see also Prothero 1996d

	Protomeryx leonardi n. sp. Loomis 1911	Loomis 1911
	recombined as Miotylopus leonardi
	from "three miles below the 'Spanish Diggings' spring... (and) five miles further up the Muddy Creek"; see also Prothero 1996d

	Miotylopus taylori Prothero 1996	Prothero 1996
	"Muddy Creek area... Monroe Creek equivalent"
Mammalia - Hypertragulidae

	Nanotragulus loomisi n. sp. Lull 1922	Lull 1922
	"Castle Butte, Big Muddy River, near Spanish Mines... lower Harrison"
Mammalia - Merycoidodontidae

	Pithecistes copei Schultz and Falkenbach 1968	Schultz and Falkenbach 1968
	synonym of Leptauchenia decora
	"Monroe Creek"; also their "L. margaryae" type from "below 'white layer'"

	Cyclopidius lullianus n. sp. Thorpe 1921	Thorpe 1921
	recombined as Leptauchenia lullianus

	Sespia ultima n. sp. Schultz and Falkenbach 1968	Schultz and Falkenbach 1968
	Monroe Creek Fm. at Muddy Creek

	Mesoreodon scotti n. sp. Schlaikjer 1934	Schlaikjer 1935
	synonym of Mesoreodon minor
	"Harrison formation at Muddy Creek"; includes "Desmatochoerus monroecreekensis" type of Schultz and Falkenbach 1954 from Monroe Creek fm., Muddy Creek

	Desmatochoerus (Paradesmatochoerus) monroecreekensis n. sp. Schultz and Falkenbach 1954	Schultz and Falkenbach 1954
	synonym of Mesoreodon minor
	F:AM 37551

	Merycoides nebraskensis Schultz and Falkenbach 1949	Schultz and Falkenbach 1949
	synonym of Merycoides cursor
	"Muddy Creek"; type of ssp. Merycoides nebraskensis blairi

	Pseudodesmatochoerus hoffmani n. gen., n. sp. Schultz and Falkenbach 1954	Schultz and Falkenbach 1954
	F:AM 44912

	Megoreodon fricki n. sp. Schultz and Falkenbach 1954	Schultz and Falkenbach 1954
	synonym of Megoreodon grandis
	also their "M. grandis" type and "Desmatochoerus hatcheri" type respectively from "Muddy Creek, Niobrara County"; both above and below the "white layer" at Muddy Creek; and above the "white layer" at Muddy Creek

	Mesoreodon megalodon Peterson 1907	Loomis 1933
	recombined as Desmatochoerus megalodon
	"Muddy Creek in eastern Wyoming"; presumably "M. sp." of Coombs 1978b; also from "near Spanish Diggings": Schultz and Falkenbach 1949

	Merycoides giganteus n. sp. Schultz and Falkenbach 1949	Schultz and Falkenbach 1949
	synonym of Desmatochoerus megalodon
	"Muddy Creek"; also "Pseudodesmatochoerus hoffmani" type of Schultz and Falkenbach 1954 from Monroe Creek fm. "'high brown sand,' 2 mi. west of Bridge, Muddy Creek"
see common names

Geography

Country:	United States	State/province:	Wyoming	County:	Goshen
Coordinates:	42.0° North, 104.2° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:	42.9° North, 98.4° West
Basis of coordinate:	based on political unit

Time


10 m.y. bin:	Cenozoic 4-5
*Period:	Tertiary	*Epoch:	Oligocene
Key time interval:	Arikareean
Age range of interval:	29.50000 - 18.50000 m.y. ago
* legacy (obsolete) database fields

Stratigraphy

Stratigraphic resolution:	group of beds
Stratigraphy comments: supposed "Upper Harrison" beds of Loomis 1911 are actually beneath the Harrison Fm. in early Arikareean rocks: McKenna and Love 1972 "Lower Harrison" is referred to "Lower Rosebud" by Loomis 1925 oreodonts of Schultz and Falkenbach 1949 are supposedly from the Monroe Creek Fm., but according to Stevens and Stevens 1996, "the Gering (the lower sediments of the 'lower Harrison beds') and Monroe Creek formations in the Muddy Creek area cannot be distinguished lithologically" may be a stratigraphic composite: Coombs 1978b

Lithology and environment

Primary lithology:	not reported
Environment:	terrestrial indet.

Taphonomy

Modes of preservation:	body
Size of fossils:	macrofossils

Collection methods and comments

Collection excludes:	some genera
Reason for describing collection:	general faunal/floral analysis
Taxonomic list comments:could include F:AM Hitonkala andersontau from "early Arikareean rocks near Lusk" of Korth 1993a Merychyus "minimus" was listed by Loomis but omitted by Schultz and Falkenbach: Coombs 1978b

Metadata

Also known as:	Big Muddy River; Castle Butte; Spanish Diggings; Spanish Mines
Database number:	17472
Authorizer:	J. Alroy, J. Marcot	Enterer:	J. Alroy, J. Marcot
Modifier:	B. Allen	Research group:	vertebrate
Created:	1993-09-27 00:00:00	Last modified:	2023-07-29 04:19:29
Access level:	the public	Released:	1993-09-27 00:00:00
Creative Commons license:	CC BY

Reference information

Primary reference:

3528.

J. H. Wahlert. 1983. Relationships of the Florentiamyidae (Rodentia, Geomyoidea) based on cranial and dental morphology. American Museum Novitates 2769:1-23 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Marcot]

Secondary references:

6294		J. Alroy. 2002. Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals. [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/M. Kouvari]
1274		M. C. Coombs. 1978. Reevaluation of Early Miocene North American Moropus (Perissodactyla, Chalicotheriidae, Schizotheriinae). Bulletin of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History 4:1-62 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Marcot]
62351		F. B. Loomis. 1911. The camels of the Harrison beds, with three new species. American Journal of Science 31(181):65-70 [J. Marcot/J. Marcot]
2271		F. B. Loomis. 1933. Three Oreodont Skeletons from the Lower Miocene of the Great Plains. Geological Society America Bulletin 44(4):723-734 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Ju]
2327		R. S. Lull. 1922. Restoration of Blastomeryx marshi. American Journal of Science 200 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Ju]
2805	5% 6280	D. R. Prothero. 1996. Camelidae. In D. R. Prothero and R. J. Emry (eds.), The Terrestrial Eocene-Oligocene Transition in North America 609-651 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Marcot]
3041		E. M. Schlaikjer. 1935. Contributions to the Stratigraphy and Palaeontology of the Goshen Hole Area, Wyoming. III. A New Basal Oligocene Formation. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 76(3):71-93 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Marcot]
3065		C. B. Schultz and C. H. Falkenbach. 1949. Promerycochoerinae, a new subfamily of oreodonts. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 93(3):69-198 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Marcot]
3067		C. B. Schultz and C. H. Falkenbach. 1954. Desmatochoerinae, a new subfamily of oreodonts. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 105(2) [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Ju]
3069		C. B. Schultz and C. H. Falkenbach. 1968. The Phylogeny of the Oreodonts. Part 1: Merycoidodontinae, Eporeodontinae, and Leptaucheniinae, Three Subfamilies Of Oreodonts, With an Appendix to the Revision Of The Merycoidodontidae, and Part 2. Summary and Conclusions Concerning the Merycoidodontidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 139:1-498 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Marcot]
3408		M. R. Thorpe. 1921. Leptauchenia Leidy and Cyclopidius (Pithecistes) Cope, with descriptions of new and little known forms in the Marsh Collection. American Journal of Science 1(5):405-419 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Marcot]
6226		X. Wang. 1994. Phylogenetic systematics of the Hesperocyoninae (Carnivora: Canidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 221:1-207 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Alroy]
3558		X. Wang, R. H. Tedford, and B. E. Taylor. 1999. Phylogenetic systematics of the Borophaginae (Carnivora: Canidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 243:1-392 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Alroy]