US34, Ravenscrag Butte flora (Paleocene of Canada)

Where: Saskatchewan, Canada (49.5° N, 109.0° W: paleocoordinates 55.6° N, 85.6° W)

• coordinate stated in text

When: Ravenscrag Formation, Paleocene (66.0 - 56.0 Ma)

• The stratigraphic position of the collection is given relative to the No. 1 coal zone, which is approximately at the base of the formation. US34 is located 17 m above No. 1 coal zone, at the same level as US32, but 2 m east on same face.

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; claystone

• During the early Tertiary, most of southern Saskatchewan was a broad alluvial plain dominated by meandering river systems. Locally, at the Ravenscrag Butte site, small lakes or ponds, sluggish streams, swamps and lowland forests successively dominated the area over a period of perhaps 2 million years.
• The Ravenscrag Formation consists of interbedded, nonmarine clays, silts, sands, and lignite. The measured section at the Ravenscrag Butte site is about 67 m thick, and lithologically, the formation in divided into two facies; the lower 38 metres comprises the grey facies, the upper 29 metres, the buff facies. At a distance, the two facies are easily distinguishable on the basis of colour. Commonly, the buff facies are less than 31 m thick in measured sections due to erosion or cover at the top. There are four conspicuous beds of coal or coaly shale in the sections at Ravenscrag Butte, including the No. 1 coal zone. The fourth coal zone marks the transition from grey to buff facies. Locality US34 is composed of grey shales and clays.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: adpression

Collection methods: salvage, surface (in situ),

Primary reference: E. E. McIver and J. F. Basinger. 1993. Flora of the Ravenscrag Formation (Paleocene), Southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada. Palaeontographica Canadiana 10:1-85 [R. Lupia/B. Wilborn/B. Wilborn]more details

Purpose of describing collection: paleoecologic analysis

PaleoDB collection 34425: authorized by Rick Lupia, entered by Brooke Wilborn on 31.08.2003

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Gastropoda
 Architaenioglossa - Viviparidae
Lioplacodes tenuicarinata
Bivalvia
 Cardiida - Sphaeriidae
"Pisidiidae indet." = Pisidiinae
"Pisidiidae indet." = Pisidiinae Gray 1857 clam
Pisidiidae bivalve
unclassified
  -
Plantae "Unidentified leaf 3"
Angiospermae
 Saxifragales - Cercidiphyllaceae
Trochodendroides flabella
Trochodendroides flabella
Trochodendroides flabella comb. nov.
 Magnoliales - Myristicaceae
cf. Myristica catahoulensis
cf. Myristica catahoulensis Berry 1924 magnoliids