Paleontology in Arkansas

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state of Arkansas

Paleontology in Arkansas refers to

ostrich dinosaurs such as Arkansaurus.[3]

During the

giant ground sloths
.

Prehistory

Belemnitella.

No

Caddo Gap in Montgomery County.[5]

Mississippian, Arkansas was home to a variety of marine invertebrates.[6] Later in the period, the northern region of the state was exposed as dry land by the gradual withdrawal of the sea. Rivers flowed across this area of the state.[4] Pennsylvanian Arkansas was home to the blastoid Pentremites, the brachiopods Composita and Spirifer, and other invertebrates.[7] The sea had completely vanished by the start of the Permian. With the final retreat of the sea, local sedimentation had stopped and begun being eroded away.[4]

Northern and central Arkansas was a terrestrial environment during the

sharks.[4]

Exogyra.

Southwestern Arkansas was part of the coastline to the

sauropods have been preserved in the southwestern part of the state.[8] The ornithomimosaur Arkansaurus fridayi lived at this time, known only from remains of its foot discovered in 1972.[12]

The seas of southern and eastern Arkansas began to shrink during the early

mastodons.[4]

History

ornithomimid
.

In August 1972, J. B. Friday discovered dinosaur bones in a Sevier County gravel pit near Lockesburg.[8] In 1973 the fossils Friday discovered were being cleaned and compared to related by dinosaurs by University of Arkansas professor James Harrison Quinn. In the course of his research, Quinn made hypothetical clay models of the missing bones in the animal's foot and duplicated the actual fossils with plaster cast in latex molds. Quinn published an abstract about the bones and nicknamed the animal "Arkansaurus fridayi".[13] This abstract was the first scientific mention of any dinosaur bones ever found in Arkansas.[12]

A

sauropod tracks resembled the "potholes" seen at the Briar site in Arkansas.[15] Pittman later performed an aerial survey
and found evidence for 10 parallel sauropod trackways on a rock surface that had also been extensively "trampled".

The Briar quarry has two separate surfaces that each preserve thousands of dinosaur tracks. The operations of the quarry continue to both uncover and destroy dinosaur footprints. In 1989 Pittman successfully dated the dinosaur tracks of the Briar quarry as equal in age to the lower Glen Rose Formation's megatracksites, which are more than 200 miles away.[16]

In the fall of 1995 senior paleontologist of the Utah Geological Survey (then with

James Kirkland, examined the Arkansaurus foot and found it to be larger but otherwise nearly identical to a new species found two years prior in Utah rocks of Early Cretaceous age. Kirkland concurred that Arkansaurus was likely related to Ornithomimus. Future clues about Arkansaurus may come from a similar dinosaur discovery in Maryland that, as of 2007, has yet to be described.[17]

From 2001 to 2003, then University of Arkansas undergraduate, ReBecca Hunt, studied the fossils and presented on them at several meetings, including the 2002 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting, the 2002 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, and the 2003 Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference. Hunt published a brief description of the fossils with the limited scientific research available at the time.[18]

Paleontologists

Natural history museums

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e Murray (1974); "Arkansas", page 95.
  2. S2CID 131239610
    .
  3. doi:10.1130/abs/2018sc-310439. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Leslie, Springer, Scotchmoor (2005); "Paleontology and geology".
  5. ^ a b c d Murray (1974); "Arkansas", page 96.
  6. ^ Murray (1974); "Arkansas", page 97.
  7. ^ Murray (1974); "Arkansas", pages 95–96.
  8. ^ a b c Braden (2007); "Arkansaurus fridayi: The Arkansas Dinosaur", page 2.
  9. ^ Everhart (2005); "Turtles: Leatherback Giants", page 112.
  10. ^ Everhart (2005); "Where the Elasmosaurs Roamed", pages 137–138.
  11. ^ Everhart (2005); "Peteranodons: Rulers of the Air", page 213.
  12. ^ a b Braden (2007); "Arkansaurus fridayi: The Arkansas Dinosaur", pages 2–3.
  13. ^ Braden (2007); "Arkansaurus fridayi: The Arkansas Dinosaur", page 3.
  14. ^ Lockley and Hunt (1999); "Problematic Potholes", page 191.
  15. ^ Lockley and Hunt (1999); "Problematic Potholes", pages 191–192.
  16. ^ Lockley and Hunt (1999); "Problematic Potholes", page 192.
  17. ^ Braden (2007); "Arkansaurus fridayi: The Arkansas Dinosaur", page 5.
  18. ^ Hunt, ReBecca K., Daniel Chure, and Leo Carson Davis. 2003. An early Cretaceous theropod foot from southwestern Arkansas. Pages 87-103 in Proceedings of the 2003 Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference.

References

  • Hunt, ReBecca K., Daniel Chure, and Leo Carson Davis. 2003. "An early Cretaceous theropod foot from southwestern Arkansas." Pages 87–103 in Proceedings of the 2003 Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference.
  • Braden, Angela K. "The Arkansas Dinosaur Arkansaurus fridayi". Arkansas Geologic Survey. 2007.
  • Everhart, M. J. 2005. Oceans of Kansas—A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea. Indiana University Press, 320 pp.
  • Leslie, Stephen, Dale Springer, Judy Scotchmoor. July 1, 2005. "Arkansas, US". The Paleontology Portal. Accessed September 21, 2012.
  • Lockley, Martin and Hunt, Adrian. Dinosaur Tracks of Western North America. Columbia University Press. 1999.
  • Murray, Marian (1974). Hunting for Fossils: A Guide to Finding and Collecting Fossils in All 50 States. Collier Books. p. 348.
    ISBN 9780020935506
    .
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