Summerville Formation
Encyclopedia
The Summerville Formation is a geological formation in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, and Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 of the Southwestern United States
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

. It dates back to the Middle Jurassic
Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from 176-161 million years ago. In European lithostratigraphy, rocks of this Middle Jurassic age are called the Dogger....

.

Dinosaurs

Theropod tracks geographically located in Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado, USA.
Ornithodires reported from the Summerville Formation
Genus Species Location Stratigraphic position Material Notes Images

Dystrophaeus
Dystrophaeus
Dystrophaeus is the name given to an extinct genus of dinosaur from the early Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic that existed around 155.7 Ma. It was perhaps a diplodocoid sauropod. Its fossils were found in the Morrison Formation of Utah....


D. viaemalae

Geographically located in Utah, USA.

"Scapula, ulna, partial radius, [and] partial manus."

Camarasaurus
Camarasaurus
Camarasaurus meaning 'chambered lizard', referring to the hollow chambers in its vertebrae was a genus of quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs. It was the most common of the giant sauropods to be found in North America...


Indeterminate

Geographically located in New Mexico, USA.

Later found to be indeterminate sauropod remains.

Pteraichnus
Pteraichnus
Pteraichnus is an ichnogenus that has been attributed to pterosaurs. It has been found in, among other units, the Lower Jurassic Aztec Sandstone....


P. saltwashensis

Geographically present in Arizona.

Includes the P. saltwashensis type locale. Specimens housed at the University of Utah. These tracks may actually be from the Morrison Formation
Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...

.

Indeterminate

Geographically present in Arizona, near Summerville. Also present in Colorado (Cactus Park, Furnish Canyon, Colorado National Monument) and Utah (Delmonte Mines, Starr Springs, Flaming Gorge, Ferron, Moab, Duchesne County).

Summerville, Furnish Canyon, Cactus Park, Delmonte Mines, Starr Springs, Ferron, and Moab specimens are housed in the University of Colorado's Dinosaur Tracks Museum in Denver. The Flaming Gorge and Colorado National Monument tracks remains in the field. Ferron specimens are also housed at the University of Utah.

See also


Geologic formations of the United States
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