Wessington Springs (Miocene of the United States)

Also known as SDSM V-6231

Where: Jerauld County, South Dakota (44.1° N, 98.6° W: paleocoordinates 44.6° N, 95.2° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Ogallala Group, Barstovian (16.3 - 12.5 Ma)

• "the section is 20'-30' in thickness... a northern outlier of the Ogallala Group... equivalent to the Valentine Formation" and the fossils apparently come from one horizon within it

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: wet floodplain; shelly/skeletal, gray, calcareous mudstone

• "likely to have been deposited in areas of minimal agitation" and underlying siltstones "appear to be a stream type deposit... dumped rather suddenly along a stream flood plain or back water area"
• "Calcareous mudstone or calci-lutite, gray white, almost entirely CaCo3 mud... bone fragments and chips in the sample exampled, so small as to be indeterminate. Sample appeared to be very similar to fresh water ostracod bearing muds... but could find no trace of ostracods"

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by D. L. Wenzel, M. Green in 1963; reposited in the SDSM

Primary reference: M. Green. 1965. New late Miocene locality in South Dakota. Journal of Paleontology 39(1):103-107 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 18455: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 05.08.1992

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Testudines - Emydidae
Emydidae indet.
Emydidae indet. Rafinesque 1815 turtle
 Testudines - Testudinidae
Testudinidae indet.
Testudinidae indet. Batsch 1788 turtle
Mammalia
 Artiodactyla - Palaeomerycidae
Palaeomerycidae indet.
Palaeomerycidae indet. Lydekker 1883 ruminant
 Perissodactyla - Rhinocerotidae
Rhinocerotidae indet.
Rhinocerotidae indet. Gray 1821 rhinoceros
 Perissodactyla - Equidae
Equinae indet.
Equinae indet. Steinmann and Döderlein 1890 horse
 Rodentia - Castoridae
Monosaulax sp.
Monosaulax sp. Stirton 1935 beaver
 Lagomorpha - Leporidae
Leporidae indet.
Leporidae indet. Fischer de Waldheim 1817 rabbit
Actinopteri
 Siluriformes - Ictaluridae
Ictalurus sp.
Ictalurus sp. Rafinesque 1820 catfish