Bird Quarry (Eocene to of the United States)

Also known as UW V-58006

Where: Sweetwater County, Wyoming (42.1° N, 109.1° W: paleocoordinates 46.6° N, 93.6° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Cathedral Bluffs Tongue Member (Wasatch Formation), Wasatchian to Wasatchian (55.8 - 46.2 Ma)

• said to be Wasatchian to Bridgerian

•"approximately 30 m below the top of the Cathedral Bluffs Tongue"

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lacustrine - large; gray, green, silty mudstone

• quarry "appears to represent a muddy area on the forested shores of Lake Gosiute... that may have occasionally been flooded"
• "gray-green silty mudstone"; "drowned algae-encrusted root systems of trees" are present

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: adpression, trace

Collected by P. O. McGrew; reposited in the UW

Collection methods: quarrying

• discovered by F. Simnacher in 1970; specimens in the University of Wyoming collection

Primary reference: J. R. Foster. 2001. Salamander tracks (Ambystomichnus?) from the Cathedral Bluffs Tongue of the Wasatch Formation (Eocene), northeastern Green River Basin, Wyoming. Journal of Paleontology 75(4):901-904 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 16134: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 15.05.2002

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• from about 30 m below the top of the unit
Gnathostomata
  -
Actinopterygii indet. ray-finned fish
Actinopteri
 Lepisosteiformes - Lepisosteidae
Lepisosteus sp. Agassiz 1843 gar
Amphibia
 Caudata -
Caudata indet. salamander
?Ambystomichnus tracks
Reptilia
 Squamata -
Squamata indet. squamates
 Testudines - Geoemydidae
Echmatemys sp. Hay 1906 turtle
 Testudines - Trionychidae
Trionychidae indet. Gray 1825 softshell turtle
 Loricata -
Crocodylia indet. crocodilian
Aves
 Anseriformes - Presbyornithidae
Presbyornis sp. Wetmore 1926 waterfowl
Mammalia
 Condylarthra - Hyopsodontidae
Hyopsodus sp. Leidy 1870 condylarth
 Placentalia -
Rodentia indet. Bowdich 1821 rodent
 Primates - Notharctidae
Notharctus sp. Leidy 1870 primate
 Theriamorpha - Phenacodontidae
Phenacodus sp. Cope 1873 condylarth
 Perissodactyla - Brontotheriidae
Palaeosyops sp. Leidy 1870 brontothere