• Source: Menefee Formation

The Menefee Formation is an upper Santonian to lower Campanian geologic formation found in Colorado and New Mexico, United States.




Description


The Menefee Formation consists of fluvial sandstone, shale, and coal. Based on ammonite biostratigraphy, the age of the Menefee Formation can be constrained to 84.2-79 million years (Ma), based on the presence of Baculites perplexus in the overlying Cliff House Sandstone, and ammonites from the late Santonian in the underlying Point Lookout Sandstone.
Named members include a lower Cleary Coal Member and an upper Allison Member.
The Mesaverde Group in the San Juan Basin records a marine regression-transgression sequence of the western margin of the Western Interior Seaway. The Menefee Formation was deposited at the peak of the regression as coastal river delta and swamp sediments, and includes numerous coal beds.
The formation is exposed at Chaco Canyon National Park, where many of the coal beds have been burned to produce distinctive red cinder outcrops.




Fossils


The Menefee Formation includes fossils of turtles, fish and crocodiles and fragmentary evidence of hadrosaurs, ankylosaurs, and ceratopsian dinosaurs. Plant fossils include leaf impressions of palms, conifers, laurels, witchhazel, and camellia. The flora are suggestive of a moist subtropical environment.




= Vertebrate fauna

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Several vertebrates have been recovered from the Menefee Formation, including intermediate remains of baenids, trionychids, and dromaeosaurids.




Economic geology


The Menefee Formation has been extensively mined for coal since the early 20th century. The Monero field in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, was mined from the 1880s into the early 1920s to support the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, but while the coal is of good quality, the coal beds are relatively thin and the terrain is rugged. Remaining reserves are around 13.5 million tons, inadequate for economic exploitation in the 21st century.




History of investigation


The Menefee Formation was first described by W.H.Holmes in 1877 during the Hayden Survey as the "Middle Coal Group" of the Mesaverde Formation. A.J. Collier redesignated this unit in 1919 as the Menefee Formation and raised the Mesaverde Formation to group rank.




See also


List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
List of stratigraphic units with few dinosaur genera




References






= Bibliography

=
Collier, A.J. (1919). "Coal south of Mancos, Montezuma County, Colorado". U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin. 691-K: K293–K310. doi:10.3133/b691K.
Dalma, S. G.; Lucas, S. G.; Jasinski, S. E.; Lichtig, A. J.; Dodson, P. (2021). "The oldest centrosaurine: a new ceratopsid dinosaur (Dinosauria: Ceratopsidae) from the Allison Member of the Menefee Formation (Upper Cretaceous, early Campanian), northwestern New Mexico, USA". PalZ. 95 (2): 291–335. doi:10.1007/s12542-021-00555-w. S2CID 234351502.
Fillmore, Robert (2011). Geological evolution of the Colorado Plateau of eastern Utah and western Colorado, including the San Juan River, Natural Bridges, Canyonlands, Arches, and the Book Cliffs. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. pp. 224, 247–248. ISBN 978-1-60781-004-9.
Hoffman, Gretchen K. (February 1991). "Geology and quality of Menefee Formation coals, Monero coal field, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Geology. 13 (1). Retrieved 8 June 2020.
Holmes, W.H. (1877). "Report [on the San Juan District, Colorado]". U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (Hayden), Annual Report. 9: 237–276.
Hunt, Adrian P.; Lucas, Spencer G. (1993). "Cretaceous vertebrates of New Mexico". In Lucas, S.G.; Zidek, J. (eds.). Dinosaurs of New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 2. Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. pp. 77–91.
Lucas, Spencer G.; Spielmann, Justin A.; Braman, Dennis R.; Brister, Brian S.; Peters, Lisa; McIntgosh, William C. (2005). "Age of the Cretaceous Menefee Formation, Gallina Hogback, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Geological Society Field Conference Series. 56. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
McDonald, AT; Wolfe, DG (2018). "A new nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) from the Upper Cretaceous Menefee Formation of New Mexico". PeerJ. 6: e5435. doi:10.7717/peerj.5435. PMC 6110256. PMID 30155354.
McDonald, A.T.; Wolfe, D.G.; Dooley, A.C. Jr. (2018). "A new tyrannosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous Menefee Formation of New Mexico". PeerJ. 6: 6:e5749. doi:10.7717/peerj.5749. PMC 6183510. PMID 30324024.
McDonald, A. T.; Wolfe, D. G.; Freedman Fowler, E. A.; Gates, T. A. (2021). "A new brachylophosaurin (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous Menefee Formation of New Mexico". PeerJ. 9: e11084. doi:10.7717/peerj.11084. PMC 8020878. PMID 33859873.
"Menefee Formation". Chaco Canyon National Historical park. National Park Service. 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
Mohler, B.F.; McDonald, A.T.; Wolfe, D.G. (2021). "First remains of the enormous alligatoroid Deinosuchus from the Upper Cretaceous Menefee Formation, New Mexico". PeerJ. 9: e11302. doi:10.7717/peerj.11302. PMC 8080887. PMID 33981505.
Scott, G.R.; O'Sullivan, R.B.; Weide, D.L. (1984). "Geologic map of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northwestern New Mexico [includes chapter on archaeology by W.B. Gillespie]". U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map. I-1571. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
Williamson, TE (1996). "Brachychampsa sealeyi, sp. nov., (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea) from the Upper Cretaceous (lower Campanian) Menefee Formation, northwestern New Mexico". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 16 (3): 421–431. doi:10.1080/02724634.1996.10011331.
Williamson, TE (1997). "A new Late Cretaceous (early Campanian) vertebrate fauna from the Allison Member, Menefee Formation, San Juan Basin, New Mexico". In Lucas, SG; Estep, JW; Williamson, TE; Morgan, GS (eds.). New Mexico's Fossil Record 1. Albuquerque: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 11. pp. 51–59. Retrieved 21 April 2021.

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Centrosaurinae
• Menefee Formation
• Dynamoterror
• Menefee
• Menefeeceratops
• Ornatops
• Centrosaurinae
• Invictarx
• List of North American dinosaurs
• Ceratopsidae
• Lambeosaurinae