• Source: Aztec Sandstone

The Aztec Sandstone is an Early Jurassic geological formation of primarily eolian sand from which fossil pterosaur tracks have been recovered. The formation is exposed in the Mojave Desert of Arizona, California and Nevada. Aztec Sandstone is named after the Aztec Tank, a lake in the Spring Mountain region of Nevada.




Description


The Aztec Sandstone is made up of two units. The lower resistant sandstone unit (100 metres (330 ft) thick) is tan to off-white in outcrops but pinkish in fresh exposures. Cross-bedded lenses can easily be observed. Frosted and pitted quartz grains well-cemented by silica are described by Evans in 1958 and 1971. The upper and less resistant unit (200m thick) consists of alternating white quartz arenites and red to brown silty sands.




Vertebrate paleofauna


The formation has provided the following ichnofossils attributed to vertebrates:




See also


List of fossil sites
List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in California
List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Nevada




References






= Bibliography

=

Bonde, J. W.; Varricchio, D. J.; Jackson, F. D.; Loope, D. B.; Shirk, A. M. (2008). E. M. Duebendorfer; E. I. Smith (eds.). Dinosaurs and dunes! Sedimentology and paleontology of the Mesozoic in the Valley of Fire State Park. Vol. 11. pp. 249–262. doi:10.1130/2008.FLD011(11). ISBN 978-0-81-375611-0. Wikidata Q95597606. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
Lockley, M.; Harris, J.D.; and Mitchell, L. 2008. "A global overview of pterosaur ichnology: tracksite distribution in space and time." Zitteliana. B28. p. 187-198. ISSN 1612-4138.
Porter, M.L. (August 1987). "Sedimentology of an ancient erg margin: the Lower Jurassic Aztec Sandstone, southern Nevada and southern California". Sedimentology. 34 (4): 661–680. Bibcode:1987Sedim..34..661P. doi:10.1111/J.1365-3091.1987.TB00793.X. ISSN 0037-0746. Wikidata Q97000543.
Hilton, Richard P. 2003. Dinosaurs and Other Mesozoic Reptiles of California. Berkeley: University of California Press. 318 pp.




Further reading


R. E. Reynolds. 1986. California trackways from the Lower Jurassic Aztec Sandstone. In D. D. Gillette (ed.), First International Symposium on Dinosaur Tracks and Traces. Abstracts with Program 24

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

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