Paleontology in Tennessee

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state of Tennessee

Paleontology in Tennessee refers to

state fossil
.

Prehistory

Paleozoic

During the

trilobites were preserved in Rutherford County.[4]

Silurian Tennessee remained covered by seawater.[1] The Silurian fauna of Tennessee included brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, and gastropods.[5] Tennessee was still submerged into the ensuing Devonian period.[1] During the Early Devonian, brachiopods and gastropods still lived in Tennessee. Decatur and Benton Counties preserve the remains of creatures like brachiopods, which are the most common, many bryozoans, crinoids, two favosites, and two tetracorals. Tennessee is one of the best sources of Early Devonian fossils in North America. One survey documented at least 99 species of Early Devonian invertebrate in the state's Birdsong shale, of these 66 were shared with contemporary deposits in New York.[6] Among Middle Devonian life documented by Tennessee's fossil record, a small variety of brachiopods are most common. Other life included a large variety of corals.[7]

The sea remained in place during the early part of the

scale trees.[1] The rich vegetation growing during this interval of time left behind a great abundance of fossils in what are now the rocks of the Cumberland Plateau.[8] The state's coal deposits also formed from plants of this age.[1] Local sediments were being eroded away rather than deposited during the remainder of the Paleozoic era. As such there are no rocks of that age in which fossils could have been preserved.[1]

Mesozoic

The early part of the ensuing

hadrosaurs.[11]

Cenozoic

Camelops.

Western Tennessee was also submerged by tropical seawater at times during the ensuing Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era. This sea was home to molluscs.

Mylodon harlani, and turtles. All these left their remains in the floodplain sediments east of the Cumberland River.[13]

History

Indigenous interpretations

Saurophaganax.

Although the

poisonous concoction and set it out for the lizard. When the lizard ingested the poison it died and the Yuchi decapitated it and returned home with its head.[14] Norman Littlebear is a Yuchi-Shawnee elder who interprets the monstrous lizard in the tale as a dinosaur being described in terms that would have been familiar to the Yuchi.[15]

The Yuchi have another tale about giant lizards. They believe that a titanic battle between a giant lizard from the land and a giant lizard from the water that was so calamitous that it "shook the earth". These stories about gigantic ancient reptiles now attributed to dinosaurs may be evidence that Yuchi medicine men once encountered the

Saurophaganax maximus as the giant lizard of their traditions.[16]

Scientific research

Among the important early fossil discoveries in Tennessee was a possible candidate for the first known occurrence of amber discovered in the 1800s near

Mylodon harlani.[13]

Natural history museums

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Springer and Scotchmoor (2003); "Paleontology and geology".
  2. ^ a b c d Murray (1974); "Tennessee", page 262.
  3. ^ a b Picconi (2003); "Ancient Seascapes of the Inland Basins: Clear, shallow environments preserved as limestone", page 93.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Murray (1974); "Tennessee", page 260.
  5. ^ Murray (1974); "Tennessee", pages 261-262.
  6. ^ Murray (1974); "Tennessee", page 263.
  7. ^ a b c Murray (1974); "Tennessee", page 264.
  8. ^ a b Picconi (2003); "Ancient Landscapes of the Inland Basins: Swamp environments preserved as dark shale or siltstone", page 94.
  9. ^ a b c Picconi (2003); "Ancient Seascapes of the Coastal Plain: Muddy, oxygen-rich environments & Silty-sandy environments preserved as gray shale", page 99.
  10. ^ a b c Murray (1974); "Tennessee", pages 264-265.
  11. ^ Weishampel, et al. (2004); "3.32 Tennessee, United States", page 587.
  12. ^ a b Picconi (2003); page 100.
  13. ^ a b Murray (1974); "Tennessee", pages 262-263.
  14. ^ Mayor (2005); "Lizards and Dinosaurs in Yuchi Fossil Legends", page 207.
  15. ^ Mayor (2005); "Lizards and Dinosaurs in Yuchi Fossil Legends", pages 207-208.
  16. ^ Mayor (2005); "Lizards and Dinosaurs in Yuchi Fossil Legends", page 208.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paleontology in Tennessee.
  • Mayor, Adrienne. Fossil Legends of the First Americans. Princeton University Press. 2005.
    ISBN 0-691-11345-9
    .
  • Murray, Marian (1974). Hunting for Fossils: A Guide to Finding and Collecting Fossils in All 50 States. Collier Books. p. 348.
    ISBN 9780020935506
    .
  • Picconi, J. E. 2003. The Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Geology of the Southeastern U.S. Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca, NY.
  • Springer, Dale, Judy Scotchmoor. October 29, 2003. "Tennessee, US." The Paleontology Portal. Accessed September 21, 2012.
  • Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. 861 pp. 
    ISBN 0-520-24209-2
    .

External links
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