Yellow Hill Road Quarry: Norian, Pennsylvania
collected by N. Waltz 1956

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Reptilia
Hypsognathus sp. Gilmore 1928
1 individual
North Museum No. 2321 (type)
    = Sphodrosaurus pennsylvanicus n. gen., n. sp. Colbert 1960
Colbert 1960
see common names

Geography
Country:United States State/province:Pennsylvania County:Lancaster
Coordinates: 40.2° North, 76.0° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:14.7° North, 20.8° West
Basis of coordinate:stated in text
Geographic resolution:small collection
Time
Period:Triassic Epoch:Late/Upper Triassic
Stage:Norian 10 m.y. bin:Triassic 4
Key time interval:Norian
Age range of interval:227.00000 - 208.50000 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Geological group:Chatham Formation:Hammer Creek
Stratigraphic resolution:bed
Stratigraphy comments: "Brunswick Formation, Newark Series, Upper Triassic." (Colbert, 1960). The name "Brunswick Formation" or "Brunswick Group" now is no longer in use.

Sues et al. (1993) assign the beds in question to the Hammer Creek Formation (sensu Glaeser, 1963): "The formation links the contemporaneous Passaic Formation of the Newark basin to the east with the Gettysburg Shale of the Gettysburg basin to the west. Based on an average dip of 20°, the locality is stratigraphically situated about 1.4 km above the top of the Stockton Formation and about 1.6 km above the pre-Newark contact. The exact stratigraphic position relative to the well-known sequence in the Newark basin, however, is uncertain (Fig. 1).
The mapped distribution of the mudstone sequence from which the fossil originates can be traced along strike to the northeast where it meets the Birdsboro diabase dike. Based on the mapped offset of the position of the Lockatong Formation pinch-out on the east and the boundary between the Stockton and Hammer Creek formations on the west side of the dike, the stratigraphic position of Sphodrosaurus pennsylvanicus should be between the upper Lockatong Formation and the Graters Member of the Passaic Formation, most likely somewhere close to member D or E-F (Fig. 1). This would place it close to the Carnian-Norian boundary, possibly early Norian (Comet, 1977; Fig. 1)."

The Passaic Formation and lateral equivalents belong to the Chatham Group, Newark Supergroup (see Weems & Olsen, 1997, GSA Bulletin 109(2) fig. 3).
The Hammer Creek Formation was regarded a facies of the Passaic Formation by Olsen (1980, in Manspeizer [ed.], 52nd Annual Meeting, New York State Geological Association).
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:gray "shale"
Includes fossils?Y
Lithology description: " 'The quarry, now abandoned, occurs in the baked portion of the Brunswick Shale; a large diabase intrusion to the east was the source of heat that baked the shale. Scattered about the quarry are rounded masses of hornfels; the spheroidal weathering caused by exfoliation of thin layers gives these objects a concretionary aspect. The quarry contains a grey shale of the Brunswick Formation, Newark Series, Upper Triassic. The strike of the rock is N. 50 degrees E. and the dip is a gentle 25 degrees N.W.' (Price, 1956, p. 168)." (Colbert, 1960).
Environment:terrestrial indet. Tectonic setting:rift
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:mold/impression
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Articulated whole bodies:none
Temporal resolution:time-averaged
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:mechanical,survey of museum collection
Reason for describing collection:taxonomic analysis
Museum repositories:AMNH
Collectors:N. Waltz Collection dates:1956
Collection method comments: Holotype of Sphodrosaurus is reposited in the North Museum of Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA. Latex and plaster copies are stored in the AMNH (no. 7601).
Metadata
Also known as:Bowmansville
Database number:93037
Authorizer:J. Mueller, M. Carrano Enterer:T. Liebrecht, M. Carrano
Modifier:M. Carrano Research group:vertebrate
Created:2009-12-23 17:55:38 Last modified:2021-06-30 11:21:01
Access level:the public Released:2009-12-23 17:55:38
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:
77283. W. Bock. 1959. New eastern American Triassic fishes and Triassic correlations. Geological Center Research Studies 1:1-139 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/M. Carrano]

Secondary references:

31432 E. H. Colbert. 1960. A New Triassic Procolophonid from Pennsylvania. American Museum Novitates 2022:1-19 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]
31474 H.-D. Sues, D. Baird, and P. E. Olsen. 1993. Redescription of Sphodrosaurus pennsylvanicus Colbert, 1960 (Reptilia) and a Reassessment of its Affinities. Annals of Carnegie Museum 62(3):245-253 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]