Gas Hills area 70km west of Casper (Megalneusaurus rex type locality) (Jurassic of the United States)

Where: Natrona County County, Wyoming (42.8° N, 107.7° W: paleocoordinates 37.2° N, 51.6° W)

• coordinate stated in text

When: Redwater Shale Member (Sundance Formation), Oxfordian (163.5 - 157.3 Ma)

• Upper Sundance Formation

•Uppermost band of the marine beds of the Jurassic

•Upper Redwater Shale, 10 m below the Windy Hill Sandstone of the Morrison Formation

Environment/lithology: marine; fine-grained, medium, glauconitic sandstone

• The lithology at the site consists of a glauconitic, fine- to medium-grained sandstone. The presence of siltstone rip-up clasts int he area, though not in contact with the bone fragments, suggests a high energy environment. No shell encrustation or epibionts occur ont he surface of the pliosaurid limb elements, although this has been reported on other marine reptiles and occurs on cobble-sized rip-up clasts elsewhere in the Redwater Shale

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: recrystallized

Collected by Wilbur Knight in 1895

Collection methods: surface (in situ),

• Univeristy of Wyoming, Laramie (UW)

Primary reference: W. R. Wahl, M. Ross, and J. A. Massare. 2007. Rediscovery of Wilbur Knight's Megalneustes rex site: new material from an old pit. Paludicola 6(2):94-104 [R. Benson/R. Benson]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 119139: authorized by Roger Benson, entered by Roger Benson on 21.10.2011

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Plesiosauria -
"Cimoliosaurus rex n. sp." = Megalneusaurus rex
"Cimoliosaurus rex n. sp." = Megalneusaurus rex Knight 1895 plesiosaur
UW 4602 (holotype), articulated distal forelimb, both hindlimbs