Beartooth Butte Formation
Geologic formation in Wyoming, United States
The Beartooth Butte Formation is a geologic formation in Wyoming. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian period.
01Description
The formation contains a basal limestone conglomerate overlain by evenly bedded red or gray limestones (more accurately, limy mudstones) and calcareous shales. It is a lenticular, channel-fill deposit which is some 2,500 feet (760 m) wide and 250 feet (76 m) thick at maximum. Most collections are from the talus slope. Stable oxygen and isotope data (Poulson in Fiorillo, 2000) indicate that the Beartooth Butte Formation was deposited in an estuarine environment, with the Cottonwood Canyon section being slightly less saline than the type section.
02Fossil content
The following fossils have been reported from the formation:
- Fish
- Allocryptaspis ellipticus
- A. flabelliformis
- Anarthraspis chamberlini
- A. montanus
- Bryantolepis brachycephalus
- B. cristatus
- Bryantolepis major
- B. obscurus
- Bulbocanthus rugosus
- Cardipeltis bryanti
- C. richardoni
- Cosmaspis transversa
- Lampraspis tuberculata
- Machaeracanthus minor
- Onchus penetrans
- O. peracutus
- Protaspis brevispina
- P. mcgrewi
- Uranolophus wyomingensis
- Aethaspis sp.
- Cephalaspis sp.
- Simblaspis sp.
- Arthropods
- Flora
- Invertebrates
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Beartooth Butte Formation”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Cosmaspis transversa (Beartooth Butte Formation, Lower Devonian; Cottonwood Canyon, east of Lovell, Wyoming, USA) 4 (33446628334).jpg by James St. John, CC BY 2.0
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