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Information about Lance Creek Formation

The Lance Formation is a division of Late Cretaceous rocks in the western United States. Named after Lance Creek, Wyoming, the microvertebrate fossils and dinosaurs represent important components of the latest Mesozoic vertebrate faunas. The Lance Formation is Late Maastrichtian in age (Lancian land mammal 'age'), and is coeval with the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and North Dakota, the Frenchman Formation of southwest Saskatchewan, and the lower part of the Scollard Formation of Alberta.

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Badlands in the Lance Formation along Cow Creek near the type locality. Niobrara County, Wyoming.

Occurrence

The Lance Formation occurs in the uppermost rock unit of the Cretaceous, which was deposited in the Maastrichtian some 70.6 to 65.5 million years ago.

Importance

At least tens of thousands of Late Cretaceous vertebrate remains have been recovered from the Lance Formation. Fossils ranging from microscopic elements to extensive bonebeds, with nearly complete, sometimes articulated dinosaur skeletons, have been found.

Size

The formation varies in thickness from about 90m (300 feet) in North Dakota, to almost 600m (2,000 feet) in parts of Wyoming.

Paleontology

The Lance Formation was laid down by streams, on a coastal plain along the edge of the Western Interior Seaway. Most of the animals known from the formation are freshwater animals, and some are exclusively freshwater forms (for instance, frogs and salamanders). However, marine fossils are also found in the formation, suggesting that the sea was nearby.

Lance Creek dinosaurs (including birds):

Theropoda Ornithischia Other sauropsids include champsosaurs, turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodiles and pterosaurs.

Remains of fishes, frogs, salamanders and mammals have also been found in the Lance Formation.

See Also

External links

Late Cretaceous (100mya - 65mya) refers to the second half of the Cretaceous Period, named after the famous white chalk cliffs of southern England, which date from this time. Rocks deposited during the Late Cretaceous Period are referred to as the Upper Cretaceous Series.
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Lance Creek, Wyoming

Seal
Motto:
Location of Lance Creek, Wyoming
Coordinates:
Country United States
State Wyoming
County Niobrara
Area
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The Mesozoic Era is one of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon. The division of time into eras dates back to Giovanni Arduino, in the 18th century, although his original name for the era now called the 'Mesozoic' was 'Secondary' (making the modern era the 'Tertiary').
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The Hell Creek Formation is an intensely-studied division of Upper Cretaceous to lower Paleocene rocks in North America, named for exposures studied along Hell Creek, near Jordan, Montana.
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The Frenchman Formation is a division of Upper Cretaceous rocks found in Saskatchewan, Canada. More accurately described as Late Maastrichtian, these rocks contain the youngest of dinosaur genera, much like the Hell Creek Formation in the United States.
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Scollard Formation is an Upper Cretaceous to lower Palaeocene rock formation found in south-central Alberta, Canada. The Scollard outcrops extensively along the banks of the Red Deer River in the area of Trochu, Alberta, where it is found just below prairie level.
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The Cretaceous Period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic Period (i.e. from 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago (Ma)) to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary Period (about 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma).
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The Maastrichtian is the last stage of the Cretaceous period, and therefore of the Mesozoic era. It spanned from 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma to 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma (million years ago).
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A bone bed is any geological stratum or deposit which contains bones of whatever kind. Inevitably, such deposits are sedimentary in nature. Not a formal term, it tends to be used more to describe especially dense collections.
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Released October 31, 2007
Genre J-Pop
Length N/A
Label Geneon
Producer(s) I've Sound

Mami Kawada singles chronology

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(2007) JOINT
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JOINT
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State of North Dakota

Flag of North Dakota Seal
Nickname(s): Peace Garden State,
Roughrider State, Flickertail State
Motto(s): Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable;
Strength from the soil
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Western Interior Seaway, also called the Cretaceous Seaway, the Niobraran Sea, and the North American Inland Sea, was a huge inland sea that split the continent of North America into two halves during most of the early and mid-Cretaceous Period.
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Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine geology. As a noun it can be a term for a certain kind of navy, or those enlisted in such a navy.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Theropoda
Marsh, 1881

Infraorders
  • Carnosauria
  • Ceratosauria
  • Deinonychosauria
  • Ornithomimosauria
  • Oviraptorosauria


Theropods ('beast feet') are a group of bipedal saurischian dinosaurs.
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Richardoestesia
Currie, Rigby & Sloan, 1990

Species
  • R. gilmorei
    Currie, Rigby & Sloan, 1990
Richardoestesia
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Tyrannosaurus
Osborn, 1905

Species
  • T. rex (type)
    Osborn, 1905
Synonyms
  • Manospondylus
    Cope, 1892
  • Dynamosaurus
    Osborn, 1905
  • ?Nanotyrannus

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Ornithomimosauria
Barsbold, 1976

Families
  • Garudimimidae
  • Harpymimidae
  • Deinocheiridae
  • Ornithomimidae


Ornithomimosaurs (meaning 'bird mimic lizards') or members of the clade Ornithomimosauria
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Ornithomimus
Marsh, 1890

Species
  • O. velox (type)
  • O. edmontonicus Sternberg, 1933


Ornithomimus
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Caenagnathidae
Sternberg, 1940

Genera
  • Caenagnathasia
  • Chirostenotes (type)
  • Elmisaurus
  • Nomingia
Synonyms
  • Elmisauridae Osmólska, 1981
Caenagnathidae
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Caenagnathinae
Sternberg, 1940

Genus: Chirostenotes
Gilmore, 1924

Species
  • C. pergracilis (type)
  • C.

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Dromaeosauridae
Matthew & Brown, 1922

Genera

See text.

Dromaeosauridae is a family of bird-like theropod dinosaurs. They were mainly small, gracile carnivores that flourished in the Cretaceous Period.
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Dromaeosaurus
Matthew & Brown, 1922

Species

D. albertensis (type species)
D. cristatus
D. explanatus
D.
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Troodontidae
Gilmore, 1924

Genera

See text.

Troodontidae is a family of bird-like theropod dinosaurs.

In previous decades, troodontid fossils were few and scrappy and they have therefore been allied, at various times, with nearly every
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Troodon
Leidy, 1856

Species
  • T. formosus
    Leidy, 1856
Synonyms
  • Polydontosaurus Gilmore, 1932
  • Stenonychosaurus Sternberg, 1932
  • Pectinodon Carpenter, 1982
Troodon
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Ornithischia
Seeley, 1888

Suborders
  • Cerapoda
  • Thyreophora


Ornithischia or Predentata is an order of beaked, herbivorous dinosaurs.
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Nodosauridae
Marsh, 1890

Genera

See text.
Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Cretaceous Period of what are now North America, Asia, Australia, Antarctica and Europe.
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Edmontonia
Sternberg, 1928

Edmontonia was an armoured dinosaur, a part of the nodosaur family from the Late Cretaceous Period. It is named after the Edmonton Formation (now the Horseshoe Canyon Formation), the unit of rock it was found in.
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