Where: Greenland (70.1° N, 52.2° W: paleocoordinates 62.3° N, 22.8° W)
• coordinate based on nearby landmark
• outcrop-level geographic resolution
When: Naujat Member (Atanikerluk Formation), Selandian (61.6 - 59.2 Ma)
• Koch identified the Upper Atanikerdluk A flora and the Upper Atanikerdluk B flora of Heer (1883a, b) in the basal part of the formation (lowermost Naujât Member). A maximum age for the Atanikerluk Formation is obtained from the NP4 – possibly early NP5 marine dinocysts in the underlying Eqalulik Formation (Nøhr-Hansen et al. 2002). Samples from the volcanic Ordlingassoq and Rinks Dal Members give radiometric ages of 60.7–61.1 ± 0.5–1.0 Ma, recalculated from Storey et al. (1998). This indicates an early to mid-Paleocene (possibly Selandian) age for the Atanikerluk Formation.
Environment/lithology: lacustrine; lithified, black, gray mudstone
•As a result of the opening of the Labrador Sea in Late Mesozoic to Early Cenozoic times, a complex of linked rift basins stretching from the Labrador Sea to northern Baffin Bay developed along West Greenland. Two main episodes of regional rifting and basin development during this time have been documented in the area: an episode of Early Cretaceous rifting, and a Late Cretaceous – Early Paleocene rift episode prior to the start of sea-floor spreading in mid-Paleocene time.
Size class: macrofossils
Preservation: mold/impression
Collected by Inglefield, Colomb, Olrik, M'Clintock in 1854, 1859
• Captain Inglefield and Lieutenant Colomb visited Atanekerdluk in summer 1854. Inglefield's specimens were given to the Geological Survey in London; Colomb's to the Royal Museum in Dublin. Mr. Olrik collected specimens from the same place in August 1859 and gave them to Sir Leopold MacClintock, who later brought them to Dublin. Olrik made additional collections that are in Copenhagen.
Primary reference: O. Heer. 1868. Fossile Insecten von Nordgrönland. Flora Fossilis Arctica: Die Fossile Flora der Polarländer 1:129-130 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details
Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis
PaleoDB collection 152291: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 16.11.2013
Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)
Taxonomic list
Insecta | |
Blattidium fragile n. sp.
Blattidium fragile n. sp. Heer 1868 cockroach | |
Trogosita insignis n. sp.
| |
Chrysomelites fabricii n. sp.
Chrysomelites fabricii n. sp. Heer 1868 leaf beetle | |
Pentatoma boreale n. sp.
Pentatoma boreale n. sp. Heer 1868 stink bug |