1,720
edits
Greater Levantine Formation: Difference between revisions
m
→Fossil content
m (Text replacement - "Ionian Highlands" to "Ionian Plateau") |
m (→Fossil content) |
||
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
==Fossil content== | ==Fossil content== | ||
[[File:Peinten dinosaur fossil-2.jpg|thumb|''[[ | [[File:Peinten dinosaur fossil-2.jpg|thumb|''[[Strettonsaurus]]'' still in rock from [[Great Lime Quarry]]]] | ||
[[File:Steinbruchwand_-_panoramio.jpg|thumb|Pas-en-Fair Quarry in [[Donne]], [[Yonderre]], showing the sedimentary rock of the Greater Levantine Formation]] | [[File:Steinbruchwand_-_panoramio.jpg|thumb|Pas-en-Fair Quarry in [[Donne]], [[Yonderre]], showing the sedimentary rock of the Greater Levantine Formation]] | ||
Though many of the Greater Levantine Formation fossils are fragmentary, they are sufficient to provide a good picture of the flora and fauna in the Levantine Basin during the Late Jurassic period. Overall, the climate was dry, similar to a savanna but, since there were no angiosperms (grasses, flowers, and some trees), the flora was quite different. Conifers, the dominant plants of the time, were to be found with ginkgos, cycads, tree ferns, and horsetail rushes. Much of the fossilized vegetation was riparian, living along the river flood plains. Along the rivers, there were fish, frogs, salamanders, lizards, crocodiles, turtles, pterosaurs, crayfish, clams, and mammaliforms. | Though many of the Greater Levantine Formation fossils are fragmentary, they are sufficient to provide a good picture of the flora and fauna in the Levantine Basin during the Late Jurassic period. Overall, the climate was dry, similar to a savanna but, since there were no angiosperms (grasses, flowers, and some trees), the flora was quite different. Conifers, the dominant plants of the time, were to be found with ginkgos, cycads, tree ferns, and horsetail rushes. Much of the fossilized vegetation was riparian, living along the river flood plains. Along the rivers, there were fish, frogs, salamanders, lizards, crocodiles, turtles, pterosaurs, crayfish, clams, and mammaliforms. | ||
| Line 15: | Line 15: | ||
====Anglei==== | ====Anglei==== | ||
* Dungville Basin: First excavated in 1924 with the purpose of finding sauropods from the Greater Levantine Formation for public display. Several specimens of ''[[Makrylaimis]]'' as well as partial specimens of ''[[Joanusaurus]]'' have been excavated in the Dungville Basin. | * Dungville Basin: First excavated in 1924 with the purpose of finding sauropods from the Greater Levantine Formation for public display. Several specimens of ''[[Makrylaimis]]'' as well as partial specimens of ''[[Joanusaurus]]'' have been excavated in the Dungville Basin. | ||
* [[Great Lime Quarry]]: First excavated by geologists from the [[University of | * [[Great Lime Quarry]]: First excavated by geologists from the [[University of Stretton]] in the late 1920s. [[Jour & Leon]] led an expedition in 1931 which discovered that, during the Jurassic, the quarry was a mudhole where several enormous sauropods got stuck and apparently caused a feeding frenzy that lured and trapped many carnivorous dinosaurs. Most specimens of the ''[[Joanusaurus]]'' subspecies ''J. angleii'' are from this site, as well as the ''[[Ligmaceratops]]'' and the unique ''[[Strettonsaurus]]''. | ||
====Urcea==== | ====Urcea==== | ||