Petroglyph phytosaur site (PFV 42) (Triassic of the United States)

Also known as PF42

Where: Apache County, Arizona (35.0° N, 109.8° W: paleocoordinates 10.7° N, 48.3° W)

• coordinate based on unpublished field data

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Petrified Forest Member (Chinle Formation), Norian (228.0 - 208.5 Ma)

• "Upper Petrified Forest Formation"; now known as the Petrified Forest Member (Woody 2003) or the Painted Desert Member of the Petrified Forest Formation (Heckert & Lucas 2002).

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: crevasse splay; burrowed, paleosol/pedogenic, nodular, red siltstone and burrowed, paleosol/pedogenic, nodular, red mudstone

• "levee deposits"
• "hosted in red (10R 4/4) siltstone that occurs between suites of levee deposits that typically occur above and below sandstone marker beds in the Petrified Forest Member...Thick layers of red (10R 4/4) and purple (10R 5/4) mudstone dominate this site (Fig. 11). The approximately 5.0-m-thick interval bears the characteristics of pedogenic floodplain deposits: well-developed slickensides, abundant fine filled cracks, iron and manganese concentrations, abundant small (0.5–5.0 mm) carbonate nodules, common light greenish gray (5GY 7/1) reduction spots, root traces, and abundant burrows. The burrows, seen in hand sample and thin section, are adhesive meniscate burrows resembling Naktodemasis browni, which has been interpreted as the traces of burrowing insects in moderately to well-drained rooted soils. The red (10R 4/4) siltstone layer from which the bones were recovered occurs within this interval of reddish mudstone and shares these characteristics."

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by UCMP in 1985

Primary reference: R. A. Long and P. A. Murry. 1995. Late Triassic (Carnian and Norian) Tetrapods from the Southwestern United States. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 4:1-254 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/P. Wagner]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 93417: authorized by Richard Butler, entered by Richard Butler on 18.01.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Phytosauria - Parasuchidae
"Pseudopalatus mccauleyi" = Machaeroprosopus mccauleyi
"Pseudopalatus mccauleyi" = Machaeroprosopus mccauleyi Ballew 1989 archosaur
PF, skull, lower jaws and articulated skeleton