Revised geology, age, and vertebrate diversity of the dinosaur-bearing Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia

Bell, Phil R.; Fanti, Federico; Hart, Lachlan J.; Milan, Luke; Craven, S. J.; Brougham, Tom; Smith, Elizabeth T.

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.11.020

Cited by 46 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…The GCF is usually considered latest Albian ( Raza, Hill & Korsch, 2009 ); however, new radiometric dates obtained from a reworked ash horizon close to where the specimens described here were found indicate an early Cenomanian age for the GCF at Lightning Ridge ( Bell et al, 2019 ). Exposures of the GCF at Lightning Ridge (and, hence the fossils described here) are therefore younger than the Eumeralla Formation (late Hauterivian–Albian) in Victoria to the south and temporally straddled by the Winton Formation (late Albian–Turonian) in Queensland to the north ( Fig.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…1A ). Fossils derive from the claystone lenses (informally referred to as the ‘Finch clay facies’) within the Wallangulla Sandstone of the GCF (Surat Basin, early Cenomanian; Bell et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Systematic Palaeontologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 ). Recent radiometric dating has revealed a maximum age of ∼96–100 Ma in the area, making the exposures at Lightning Ridge Cenomanian in age and approximately 10 Ma younger than equivalent exposures of the GCF in the northern (Queensland) part of the Surat Basin ( Bell et al, 2016 ; Bell et al, 2019 ). At Lightning Ridge, small ornithopod bones dominate the dinosaur remains although dental and cranial elements are rare (P. Bell, 2018, E. Smith, 2018, personal observation).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia

Bell

Herne

Brougham

et al. 2018

PeerJ

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During the Early Cretaceous, dinosaur communities of the Australian-Antarctic rift system (Eumeralla and Wonthaggi formations) cropping out in Victoria were apparently dominated by a diverse small-bodied ‘basal ornithopod’ fauna. Further north, in Queensland (Winton and Mackunda formations), poorly-represented small-bodied ornithopods coexisted with large-bodied iguanodontians. Our understanding of the ornithopod diversity from the region between the Australian-Antarctic rift and Queensland, represented by Lightning Ridge in central-northern New South Wales (Griman Creek Formation), has been superficial. Here, we re-investigate the ornithopod diversity at Lightning Ridge based on new craniodental remains. Our findings indicate a diverse ornithopod fauna consisting of two-to-three small-bodied non-iguanodontian ornithopods (including Weewarrasaurus pobeni gen. et sp. nov.), at least one indeterminate iguanodontian, and a possible ankylopollexian. These results support those of previous studies that favour a general abundance of small-bodied basal ornithopods in Early to mid-Cretaceous high-latitude localities of southeastern Australia. Although these localities are not necessarily time-equivalent, increasing evidence indicates that Lightning Ridge formed a ‘meeting point’ between the basal ornithopod-dominated localities in Victoria and the sauropod-iguanodontian faunas in Queensland to the north.

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Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Systematic Palaeontologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia

Bell

Herne

Brougham

et al. 2018

PeerJ

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“…Subterranean exposures of the Wallangulla Sandstone member (Moore, 2002) exceed 25 m in thickness and include laterally extensive but discontinuous claystone lenses ('Finch Clay facies'; Scheibner & Basden, 1998) that are the sole source of commercial opal and opalized fossils, including those described here. These sediments are interpreted to have been deposited in freshwater lakes and lagoons on a lowland floodplain that drained into the epeiric Eromanga Sea, which lay to the north and northwest of the study area (Bell et al 2019). Although chiefly freshwater (based on the diverse invertebrate fauna), rare marine vertebrates (aspidorhynchid teleosts, lamniform chondrichthyans, leptocleidid plesiosaurs) attest to distal connections between some of these water bodies and the Eromanga Sea (Bell et al 2019 and references therein).…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1). Although decapod bio-gastroliths from the Griman Creek Formation have been referred to on multiple occasions (Smith, 1999;Bell et al 2019;Tucker & Tucker, 2019), they have not been formally described and their affinities have not been discussed. We describe these remains and discuss their implications for palaeobiogeography and as palaeoenvironmental indicators in the Griman Creek Formation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crayfish bio-gastroliths from eastern Australia and the middle Cretaceous distribution of Parastacidae

Bell

Bicknell

Smith³

2019

Geol. Mag.

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AbstractFossil crayfish are typically rare, worldwide. In Australia, the strictly Southern Hemisphere clade Parastacidae, while ubiquitous in modern freshwater systems, is known only from sparse fossil occurrences from the Aptian–Albian of Victoria. We expand this record to the Cenomanian of northern New South Wales, where opalized bio-gastroliths (temporary calcium storage bodies found in the foregut of pre-moult crayfish) form a significant proportion of the fauna of the Griman Creek Formation. Crayfish bio-gastroliths are exceedingly rare in the fossil record but here form a remarkable supplementary record for crayfish, whose body and trace fossils are otherwise unknown from the Griman Creek Formation. The new specimens indicate that parastacid crayfish were widespread in eastern Australia by middle Cretaceous time, occupying a variety of freshwater ecosystems from the Australian–Antarctic rift valley in the south, to the near-coastal floodplains surrounding the epeiric Eromanga Sea further to the north.

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The first record of amiid fishes (Halecomorphi, Amiiformes, Amiidae, Calamopleurini?) from Eastern Gondwana

Berrell

Cavin

Trinajstic

et al. 2023

Cretaceous Research

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Revised geology, age, and vertebrate diversity of the dinosaur-bearing Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia

Cited by 46 publications

References 74 publications

Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia

Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia

Crayfish bio-gastroliths from eastern Australia and the middle Cretaceous distribution of Parastacidae

The first record of amiid fishes (Halecomorphi, Amiiformes, Amiidae, Calamopleurini?) from Eastern Gondwana

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