Palynologically calibrated vertebrate record from North Dakota consistent with abrupt dinosaur extinction at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary
- 1Pioneer Trails Regional Museum, Bowman, North Dakota 58623, USA
- 2Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, Colorado 80205, USA
- 3U.S. Geological Survey, MS 939, Box 25046, Denver, Colorado 80225, USA
Abstract
New data from 17 Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary sections and 53 vertebrate sites in the Hell Creek and Fort Union Formations in southwestern North Dakota document a 1.76 m barren interval between the highest Cretaceous vertebrate fossils and the palynologically recognized K-T boundary. The boundary is above the formational contact at 15 localities and coincident with it at two, demonstrating that the formational contact is diachronous. Dinosaurs are common in the highest Cretaceous vertebrate samples and a partial dinosaur skeleton in the Fort Union Formation is the highest recorded Cretaceous vertebrate fossil in this area.
Footnotes
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- Accepted October 3, 2000.
- Received June 16, 2000.
- Revision received September 26, 2000.
- Geological Society of America
