Clayton Lake tracksite (Mesa Rica Sandstone): Albian, New Mexico
collected 1982

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Reptilia - Pterosauria
Gillette 1986
    = cf. Pterosauria indet. Kaup 1834
Gillette and Thomas 1989
Reptilia - Iguanodontipodidae
Thomas and Gillette 1985 243 specimens
Lucas et al. 1989
Lucas et al. 2000
Lockley et al. 2006
243 specimens
Thomas and Gillette 1985
Lucas et al. 1989
Reptilia - Ornithomimipodidae
Gillette and Thomas 1989 6 specimens
or bird
Lucas et al. 2000
Lockley et al. 2001
Lockley et al. 2006
Gillette and Thomas 1989
Reptilia - Grallatoridae
Thomas and Gillette 1985
Lucas et al. 2000
see common names

Geography
Country:United States State/province:New Mexico County:Union
Coordinates: 36.6° North, 103.3° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:43.2° North, 54.6° West (Wright 2013)
Basis of coordinate:stated in text
Altitude:1570 meters
Geographic resolution:small collection
Time
Period: Cretaceous Epoch: Early Cretaceous
Stage: Albian 10 m.y. bin: Cretaceous 4
Key time interval: Albian
Age range of interval: 113.2 - 100.5 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Geological group:Dakota Formation:Mesa Rica Sandstone
Stratigraphic resolution:bed
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:current ripples,"cross stratification",burrows,medium,coarse sandstone
Includes fossils?Y
Lithology description: "Sandstone, quartzose, medium to coarse grained, subrounded to rounded, poorly sorted, grayish orange (10 YR 7/4) unweathered, weathers to dark yellowish orange (10 YR 6/6); bedforms range from planar crossbeds to ripple laminae to trough crossbeds; clay pebbles and gravel present in trough bases, Thalassinoides burrows on top bedding plan."
Environment:marine indet.
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:trace
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:surface (in situ),observed (not collected)
Reason for describing collection:biostratigraphic analysis
Collection dates:1982
Taxonomic list comments:Ornithopoda includes ichnogenus Amblydactylus
Metadata
Database number:52161
Authorizer:M. Carrano Enterer:K. Maguire, M. Carrano, S. Miller
Modifier:M. Carrano Research group:vertebrate
Created:2005-07-28 12:32:59 Last modified:2025-02-22 15:12:02
Access level:the public Released:2005-07-28 12:32:59
Creative Commons license:CC0
Reference information

Primary reference:
69374. Anonymous. 1982. Discovery of dinosaur tracks in New Mexico a bonanza. Geo Dec 1982:124 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]

Secondary references:

63733 D. D. Gillette. 1986. Problematical trace fossils in the Dakota Formation, Clayton Lake Street Park, Union County, New Mexico. New Mexico Geology 8(1):23 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
45550 D. D. Gillette and D. A. Thomas. 1985. Dinosaur tracks in the Dakota Formation (Aptian–Albian) at Clayton Lake State Park, Union County, New Mexico. New Mexico Geological Society Guidebook, 36th Field Conference 283-288 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
14030ETE D. D. Gillette and D. A. Thomas. 1989. Problematical tracks and traces of Late Albian (Early Cretaceous) age, Clayton Lake State Park, New Mexico, USA. In D. D. Gillette and M. G. Lockley (eds.), Dinosaur Tracks and Traces. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 337-342 [M. Carrano/K. Maguire/M. Carrano]
1965 A. P. Hunt and S. G. Lucas. 1993. Cretaceous vertebrates of New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 2:77-91 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/M. Carrano]
16823ETE A. P. Hunt and S. G. Lucas. 2004. Multiple parallel dinosaur tail drags from the Early Cretaceous of New Mexico. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24(3, suppl.):73A [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
25992ETE M. G. Lockley, J. Holbrook, R. Kukihara and M. Matsukawa. 2006. An ankylosaur-dominated dinosaur tracksite in the Cretaceous Dakota Group of Colorado: paleoenvironmental and sequence stratigraphic context. In S. G. Lucas and R. M. Sullivan (eds.), Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from the Western Interior. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 35:95-104 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
61886 M. G. Lockley and A. P. Hunt. 1995. Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of the Western United States xxi-338 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
43968 M. G. Lockley, S. G. Lucas, and A. P. Hunt. 2000. Dinosaur tracksites in New Mexico: a review. In S. G. Lucas and A. B. Heckert (eds.), Dinosaurs of New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 7:9-16 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
54567 M. G. Lockley and J. L. Wright. 2001. Trackways of large quadrupedal ornithopods from the Cretaceous: a review. In D. H. Tanke & K. Carpenter (ed.), Mesozoic Vertebrate Life: New Research Inspired by the Paleontology of Philip J. Currie 428-442 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
19048ETE M. G. Lockley, J. L. Wright, and M. Matsukawa. 2001. A new look at Magnoavipes and so-called "big bird" tracks from Dinosaur Ridge (Cretaceous, Colorado). The Mountain Geologist 38(3):137-146 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
14518ETE S. G. Lucas, A. B. Heckert, and R. M. Sullivan. 2000. Cretaceous dinosaurs in New Mexico. In S. G. Lucas and A. B. Heckert (eds.), Dinosaurs of New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 17:83-90 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
14783ETE S. G. Lucas, A. P. Hunt, K. K. Kietzke and D. L. Wolberg. 1986. Cretaceous stratigraphy and biostratigraphy, Clayton Lake State Park, Union County, New Mexico. New Mexico Geology 8(3):60-65 [M. Carrano/K. Maguire/M. Carrano]
14019ETE S. G. Lucas, A. P. Hunt, and K. K. Kietzke. 1989. Stratigraphy and age of Cretaceous dinosaur footprints in northeastern New Mexico and northwestern Oklahoma. In D. D. Gillette and M. G. Lockley (eds.), Dinosaur Tracks and Traces. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 217-221 [M. Carrano/K. Maguire/M. Carrano]
14666ETE M. Matsukawa, M. G. Lockley, and A. P. Hunt. 1999. Three age groups of ornithopods inferred from footprints in the mid-Cretaceous Dakota Group, eastern Colorado, North America. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 147:39-51 [M. Carrano/K. Maguire/M. Carrano]
24897ETE D. A. Thomas and D. D. Gillette. 1985. Ornithopod and theropod ichnofauna in the Dakota Formation, Clayton Lake State Park, northeastern New Mexico. Geological Society of America, Rocky Mountain Section, Abstracts with Programs 17(4):267 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]