Dinosaur State Park, Rocky Hill tracksite: Hettangian, Connecticut
collected by E. McCarthy 1966-1968

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Reptilia - Batrachopodidae
Batrachopus dispar Lull 1904
300 specimens
Reptilia - Grallatoridae
Grallator cuneatus Hitchcock 1858
Ostrom and Quarrier 1968
synonym of Grallator tenuis
Eubrontes sp. Hitchcock 1845
Coombs 1980
swimming tracks
Eubrontes giganteus (Hitchcock 1836)
1000 specimens
Anchisauripus sillimani (Hitchcock 1843)
12 specimens
recombined as Eubrontes sillimani
see common names

Geography
Country:United States State/province:Connecticut
Coordinates: 41.7° North, 72.7° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:22.4° North, 19.5° West
Basis of coordinate:estimated from map
Altitude:59 meters
Geographic resolution:outcrop
Time
Period:Jurassic Epoch:Early/Lower Jurassic
Stage:Hettangian 10 m.y. bin:Jurassic 1
Key time interval:Hettangian
Age range of interval:201.40000 - 199.50000 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Geological group:Meriden Formation:East Berlin
Stratigraphic resolution:bed
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:desiccation cracks,wave ripples,"cross stratification",gray lithified sandstone
Secondary lithology:gray mudstone
Includes fossils?Y
Includes fossils?Y
Lithology description: "Tracks are in a sequence of gray arkoses and and gray shales. The traks are best preserved in the arkosic units as the bedding planes are well developed. The arkosic units display excellent ripple marks, raindrop impressions, mud cracks and cross bedding."
Environment:lacustrine - large
Geology comments: area described as a Triassic "mud hole"; later "a large permanent lake"; also "subaerial and shallow-water lacustrine conditions"
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:mold/impression,trace
Degree of concentration:concentrated
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Spatial orientation:life position
Preservation of anatomical detail:good
Abundance in sediment:abundant
Temporal resolution:snapshot
Spatial resolution:autochthonous
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:surface (in situ),observed (not collected)
Reason for describing collection:taxonomic analysis
Museum repositories:YPM
Collectors:E. McCarthy Collection dates:1966-1968
Collection method comments: discovered 24 August 1966
Metadata
Database number:55741
Authorizer:M. Carrano Enterer:K. Maguire, M. Carrano
Modifier:M. Carrano Research group:vertebrate
Created:2005-11-03 12:53:11 Last modified:2023-06-14 15:43:26
Access level:the public Released:2005-11-03 12:53:11
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:
48283. J. H. Ostrom. 1967. Peabody paleontologists assist new dinosaur-track park. Discovery 2(2):21-24 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]

Secondary references:

63735 Anonymous. 1980. Tracks of swimming dinosaurs challenge old theories. New Scientist 85(1200):1010 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
56367 E. H. Colbert. 1970. Fossils of the Connecticut Valley. The Age of Dinosaurs begins (revised edition). State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut Bulletin 96:iv-32 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
17486ETE W. P. Coombs. 1980. Swimming ability of carnivorous dinosaurs. Science 207:1198-1199 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
54809 A. Davis. 1974. Dinosaurland. Rocks and Minerals 49(7/8):438-440 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
18105ETE J. O. Farlow and P. M. Galton. 2003. Dinosaur trackways of Dinosaur State Park, Rocky Hill, Connecticut. In P. M. LeTourneau & P. E. Olsen (eds.). The Great Rift Valleys of Pangea in Eastern North America, Volume 2: Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Paleontology. Columbia University Press, New York 248-263 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
25607ETE P. M. Galton. 2002. Connecticut Valley footprints from 1802 to now: Moody's Corner, Massachusetts to Dinosaur State Park, Connecticut, USA. DinoPress 6:22-25/-78-91 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/R. Day]
25709ETE P. M. Galton and J. O. Farlow. 2003. Dinosaur State Park, Connecticut, USA: history, footprints, trackways, exhibits. Zubía 21:129-173 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
54195 B. J. Malahan. 1967. The terrible lizards of Rocky Hill. Yankee 31:78–79-168–171 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
83029 N. G. McDonald and P. E. Olsen. 1989. Tectonic, Depositional, and Paleoecological History of Early Mesozoic Rift Basins, Eastern North America. Gulf, North Carolina, USA to Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, Canada. July 20–30, 1989. International Geological Congress Field Trip T-351. In P. E. Olsen, R. W. Schlische, & P. J. W. Gore (eds.), Stop 7.4: Dinosaur State Park, Rocky Hill, CT 114-115 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
38721 A. R. C. Milner, M. G. Lockley, and J. I. Kirkland. 2006. A large collection of well-preserved theropod dinosaur swim tracks from the Lower Jurassic Moenave Formation, St. George, Utah. In J. D. Harris, S. G. Lucas, J. A. Spielmann, M. G. Lockley, A. R. C. Milner, & J. I. Kirkland (eds.), The Triassic-Jurassic Terrestrial Transition. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 37:315-328 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
69059 A. R. C. Milner and M. G. Lockley. 2016. Dinosaur swim track assemblages: characteristics, contexts, and ichnofacies implications. In P. L. Falkingham, D. Marty, & A. Richter (eds.), Dinosaur Tracks: The Next Steps 152-180 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
55654 D. J. Mossman and W. A. S. Sarjeant. 1983. The footprints of extinct animals. Scientific American 248(1):74-85 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
18115ETE P. E. Olsen. 2005. Field Guide for Non-marine Boundary Events in the Newark Basin (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut), Eastern United States and their Litho-, Chrono- and Biostratigraphic Context. Guidebooks for Field Workshops of IGCP 458 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/M. Uhen]
62740 J. H. Ostrom. 1972. Were some dinosaurs gregarious?. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 11:287-301 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
14963ETE J. H. Ostrom and S. S. Quarrier. 1968. Trip C-3: the Rocky Hill dinosaurs. In P. M. Orville (ed.), New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, 60th Annual Meeting, Guidebook for Fieldtrips in Connecticut. State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut, Hartford 2:1-11 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
85047 D. B. Weishampel and L. Young. 1996. Dinosaurs of the East Coast xiii-275 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
62061 J. L. Wright. 1997. Rocky Hill Dinosaur Park. In P. J. Currie & K. Padian (ed.), Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs 643-644 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]