Preliminary Survey of a Paleocene Faunule from the Angels Peak Area, New Mexico — John Shaqi
Preliminary Survey of a Paleocene Faunule from the Angels Peak Area, New MexicoWilson, Robert W. (Robert Warren)
Science
Preliminary Survey of a Paleocene Faunule from the Angels Peak Area, New Mexico
Wilson, Robert W. (Robert Warren)
Geology, Stratigraphic -- Paleocene
The mammalian fossils, numbering approximately 150 specimens, were all
obtained within a small area located in the NW 1/4 of sec. 14, T. 27 N,
R. 11 W, San Juan County, New Mexico. The specimens were collected from
a zone of reddish silt three to four feet in thickness. The actual bone
layer, not as yet located, may prove to be thinner than this. Almost
all the material was recovered from approximately 100 linear yards of
outcrop. A few specimens, however, were obtained at varying distances
away from this central area, as far distant perhaps as one-half mile.
Of these, nineteen were at the same level stratigraphically, and only
one was lower (by 70 feet) in the section. This latter specimen,
representing a new genus and species of Primates, is not certainly
duplicated by material at the main concentration. Seemingly, the others
are.
* * * * *
The red zone at the "bone pocket" carries many concretionary masses
which frequently contain the fossil specimens. Not all specimens,
however, are from such lumps.
Even within the area of greatest concentration, specimens are of
sporadic occurrence. A low ridge, a few feet high, may have abundant
material weathering from the rock on one slope, but have the opposite
side barren. Occasionally, a small rill three or four feet in length
and six inches or so across may carry fragments of five or six
individuals representing several genera. For example, in one such rill
were found _Didymictis_, n. sp. b; _Goniacodon levisanus_; _Tricentes
cf. T. subtrigonus_; and _Protoselene opisthacus_. No specimens were
found in place in unweathered rock, but the quarry possibilities of the
bone pocket have still to be tested.
The stratigraphic position of the bone concentration in relation to
the total Nacimiento section exposed in Kutz Canyon has not been
determined. It is approximately 160 feet below the western rim at a
point nearest the "pocket". The upper 100 feet of strata consists of
sandstone believed by Granger (1917:822) to represent either: (1)
equivalent of the "Wasatch" (San José) of the Ojo Alamo section, or
(2) "Torrejon" (upper Nacimiento). Granger perhaps favored the first
interpretation, but the writer, at present, thinks the second
probable.
THE MAMMALIAN FAUNULE
The following mammalian species have been identified as present in the
Angels Peak "pocket".
Order Multituberculata
Family Ptilodontidae
_Mimetodon?_ cf. _M. trovessartianus_
Order Insectivora
Family Palaeoryctidae
_Palaeoryctes_ cf. _P. puercensis_
Family Leptictidae
_Prodiacodon?_ sp.
Family Pantolestidae
_Pentacodon_ n. sp.
Family Mixodectidae
_Indrodon malaris_
Order Primates
Family Anaptomorphidae
anaptomorphid? new gen. and sp.
(70 feet stratigraphically below level of Angels Peak pocket).
? Primates, gen. and sp. indet.
Order Taeniodonta
Family Stylinodontidae
_Psittacotherium?_ sp.
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