Also known as Fruita Paleontological Area, LACM Loc. 5576, "tiny dinosaur site", CO-33

Where: Mesa County, Colorado (39.1° N, 108.8° W: paleocoordinates 35.6° N, 56.1° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Brushy Basin Member (Morrison Formation), Early/Lower Tithonian (150.8 - 145.0 Ma)

• "Drab flood-plain facies" at the base of the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation immediately above the "clay change" horizon (see Kirkland 2006, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 36:67-95, fig. 6, pg. 93). Turner & Peterson (1999, Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah, Utah Geol. Survey Misc. Publ. 99-1, 77-114) placed the Fruitadens localities (listed as CO-33 in their stratigraphic sections) within the Kimmeridgian, and within their "Dinosaur Zone 2" and "charophyte-ostracod Zone 4". Stratigraphic horizons closely equivalent to the Fruitadens quarries yield 40Ar/39Ar isotopic dates of 150.3 +/- 0.3 Ma and 150.2 +/- 0.5 Ma (see Turner & Peterson 1999). This would place the Fruita quarries within the early Tithonian on recent timescales.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: crevasse splay; sandstone and mudstone

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Collected by G. L. Callison & party in July/August 1979; reposited in the LACM

Collection methods: mechanical,

Primary reference: J. I. Kirkland. 2006. Fruita Paleontological Area (Upper Jurassic, Morrison Formation), western Colorado: an example of terrestrial taphofacies analysis. In J. R. Foster & S. G. Lucas (ed.), Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 36:67-95 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 92360: authorized by Matthew Carrano, entered by Matthew Carrano on 09.11.2009

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)