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Eocene Vertebrates, Coprolites, and Plants in the Golden Valley Formation of Western North Dakota

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Eocene Vertebrates, Coprolites, and Plants in the Golden Valley Formation of Western North Dakota GLENN L. JEPSEN Dept. Geology, Princeton University, Princeton, N. J. Eocene Vertebrates, Coprolites, and Plants in the Golden Valley Formation of Western North Dakota Abstract: An early Eocene date for the origin of this early Tertiary biofacies indicate warm, humid, the Golden Valley Formation in North Dakota is swampy lowlands with subtropical forests bordering confirmed by the discovery of fossil fish, amphib- sluggish streams. Montmorillonite in the formation ians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Riparian and may represent ash from volcanoes to the west. aquatic animals and plants that were associated in CONTENTS Introduction 673 References cited 683 Acknowledgments 673 Salvinia preauriculata as an index fossil. 675 Figure Age of the Kingsbury Conglomerate. 676 1. Distribution of the Golden Valley Formation Naming of the Golden Valley Formation. 677 in part of Stark County, North Dakota . 674 Fossils of the Golden Valley Formation . 678 Vertebrates 678 Plate Facing Coprolites 680 1. Rocks and fossils of the Golden Valley Forma- Plants 681 tion, Stark County, North Dakota .... 676 "Hard Siliceous" layer 681 2. Vertebrate Coprolites from the Golden Valley Conclusions 682 Formation, Stark County, North Dakota . 677 faculty members and students from universities INTRODUCTION and other schools in Colorado, Connecticut, Recent discoveries of many fossil vertebrates Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, in Stark County, western North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, validate an early Eocene (Sparnacian, Wasatch- and South Dakota participated in a program of ian) age for the Golden Valley Formation prospecting for fossils and quarrying in the and extend the known geographic distribution Golden Valley beds on the margins of the of North American, early Eocene land- Little Badlands synclinal basin area southwest vertebrate faunas several hundred miles east- of Dickinson, North Dakota, in the Heart ward. River drainage system (Fig. 1). This project, At least 18 orders, 29 families, 38 genera, and as part of a larger investigation of early Ter- 39 species of vertebrates from the Golden tiary rocks and fossils in western states, was Valley Formation are now represented in col- undertaken to test the validity of the paleo- lections at Princeton University, and additional botanical evidence adduced by the late Roland explorations in the region will undoubtedly W. Brown for the Eocene age of the Golden increase this number. Data derived from these Valley Formation and to try to find vertebrate new occurrences and associations suggest many fossils to aid in dating and correlating the interesting speculations about the ecology, formation. climate, terrain, and biofacies of early Ceno- zoic time east of the Rocky Mountains. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS At various times during parts of each sum- While field research was in progress on the mer field season of 1958 to 1961, inclusive, Golden Valley Formation south of South Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 74, p. 673-684, 1 fig., 2 pis., June 1963 673 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/74/6/673/3417004/i0016-7606-74-6-673.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 674 G. L. JEPSEN—EOCENE FOSSILS, GOLDEN VALLEY FORMATION, N. DAK. Heart, North Dakota, many friends helped in Museum, Ekalaka, Montana; Leonard Radin- defining and resolving some of the numerous sky, Yale University; Peter Robinson, Univer- problems of paleoecology, stratigraphy, sedi- sity of Colorado; and Elwyn Simons, Yale mentology, and geomorphology that are pre- University. sented by the fossils and rocks of the area. For enthusiastic work with pick and shovel Especially useful suggestions and criticisms in and air compressor many student diggers de- the field were offered by Erling Dorf and serve a vote of thanks. Parish A. Jenkins, Jr., Donald Baird, Princeton University; William participated in the field work of two seasons E. Benson, National Science Foundation; and expanded his research into a senior thesis Robert Chaifee, Dartmouth College; H. D. (1961, Princeton Univ.) on the lithology, co- Holland, Jr., University of North Dakota; prolites, and paleoecology of the Golden Wilson M. Laird, State Geologist of North Valley Formation. Clara Langdon of Dickinson Dakota; Marshall Lambert, Carter County and John A. Dvorak of South Heart generously 103° | I Twr White River Group -FORT UNION I Teg Golden Valley Formation NORTH DAKOTA I Tft Tongue River Member of 0 Fort Union Formation SENTINEL BUTTE I • A, B Fossil sites Figure 1. Distribution of the Golden Valley Formation in part of Stark County, North Dakota. Modified from Benson (1951). Fossil vertebrate localities: A, White Butte Site; B, Turtle Valley Site Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/74/6/673/3417004/i0016-7606-74-6-673.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 675 provided home and camp accomodations for grown explosively and covers more than 200 some members of the field crews. Erling Dorf squares miles as a dense green floating carpet contributed the identifications and classifica- that is suffocating some of the fish and other tion of Golden Valley fossil plants herein listed, elements of the native aquatic biota (Huxley, and he plans to continue field work on the 1962). formation to extend the paleobotanical collec- The Cretaceous to Recent time range of the tions in preparation for additional publications genus is not unusual for plants but is very long about them. Richard Estes of Boston Univer- when compared with the duration of most sity helped identify and prepare a list of some mammalian genera. Despite Brown's insistence of the submammalian fossil vertebrates. that the putative absence of Salvinia from Princeton University supported this study Paleocene floras is an actual circumstance and through the William B. Scott Research Fund not merely a function of luck in collecting, it for Vertebrate Paleontology. seems obvious that this hardy oval-pinnuled fern eventually will be found in Paleocene SALVINIA PREAURICULATA rocks, thus closing or narrowing this hiatus of AS AN INDEX FOSSIL many millions of years in its distribution. In Brown (1948a; 1948b; 1952; in Benson, numerous localities all conditions past and pres- 1952; in Benson and Laird, 1947) originally ent seem to be satisfied for its presence and based his conclusions about the age of the preservation in Paleocene sediments. Golden Valley Formation solely and tenuously Berry's interesting speculation (1930, p. 48) upon the known occurrences and the assumed, that the species Salvinia preauriculata spread but not certainly delimited, time range of a northward to Wyoming from equatorial Amer- water-floating fern, Salvinia preauriculata. He ica during Eocene time is not supported by the had perceived a curious and unexplained time known place-time distribution of its geological distribution of Salvinia; although it occurs in occurrences (late Cretaceous of Colorado; North America in late Cretaceous and early early Wasatchian early Eocene of northern Eocene sediments, as well as mid-Eocene and Montana, western North Dakota, and various more recent deposits, it has not been found in localities in Wyoming; late Wasatchian early the intervening Paleocene beds. During a Eocene of Tennessee; and mid-Eocene Bridger- period of many years Brown (1948a, p. 1169) ian of the western Wyoming Wind River "... collected thousands of fossil plant spe- basin). Neither does the pattern clearly support cimens from hundreds of localities in the the migration direction (west to east) men- Paleocene ..." and "... never found a Paleo- tioned as a possibility by Benson (1952, open- cene Salvinia." He discovered the "Cretaceous file report, U. S. Geol. Survey, p. 90-91) species" in the " 'Laramie' Formation (Lance)" Waves of territorial extension may have oc- near Craig, Colorado, and also noted the species curred very rapidly in either of these or in preauriculata as an element of lakeside or slack- other directions as areas were opened by ap- stream vegetation in the mid-Eocene (Bridger- propriate climatic conditions to the spread of ian, Lutetian) Aycross Formation of the Wind the species, but the known distribution in time River basin, Wyoming (Berry, 1930), as well as and area of the taxon is too coarse a measuring part of a coastal and lagoon-border flora in the device to determine such comparatively fine early Eocene (Wasatchian, Ypresian) Wilcox details of its geographical habits. Group in the Tennessee region. Berry (p. 48) A real, rather than merely an apparent, ab- said that the latter form is very similar to the sence of Salvinia from Paleocene strata in the living S. auriculata of Cuba and Central and United States is fully in accord with the pre- South America and, further, that S. zeillerifmm sumptive absence therefrom of several mam- the Sparnacian of the Paris basin is more similar malian groups such as artiodactyls, perisso- to S. freauriculata of the Wilcox than to any of dactyls, and adapid primates. None of these the later Tertiary forms. animals or their ancestors, however, are known Living representatives of various species of to have been present in America in Cretaceous Salvinia are found chiefly in quiet equatorial time, and their apparently sudden arrival in the waters in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. S. earliest Eocene strongly indicates a territorial auriculata, introduced into tropical Africa, has expansion or migration rather than a mere become a serious limnological problem in shift of ecologic conditions. Vertebrate paleon- Kariba Lake on the Zambezi River, the largest tologists for many years have eagerly but fruit- man-made lake in the world, where it has lessly sought (and will continue to search for) Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/74/6/673/3417004/i0016-7606-74-6-673.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 676 G. L. JEPSEN-EOCENE FOSSILS, GOLDEN VALLEY FORMATION, N. DAK. fossils of pre-Eocene forms that can be rec- prior to the time that the term and concept ognized as representing the populations from "Paleocene" was generally accepted in this which "dawn horses," "dawn cattle," and country.
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