The cretaceous birds of New JerseyOlson, Storrs L.
Science
The cretaceous birds of New Jersey
Olson, Storrs L.
Birds, Fossil; Paleontology -- Cretaceous; Paleontology -- New Jersey
The summary of Petters (1976) represents current ideas of the
Cretaceous stratigraphy of New Jersey. Baird's (1967) discussion is
consistent with Petters's view that the Hornerstown Formation is
regarded as partly Cretaceous and partly Tertiary. Some authors have
used the term New Egypt Formation instead of Navesink in more southerly
outcrops.
Cretaceous birds have been recovered from three geographically
distinct localities in New Jersey (Figure 2). With the exception of
_Laornis_, all of the specimens described by Marsh (1870, 1872) came
from Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, in the area including
the settlements of Hornerstown, Arneytown, and Cream Ridge. The Meirs
family operated a number of pits in this area and it is no longer
possible to ascertain the exact provenance of specimens labelled only
as being from Hornerstown. These could have come either from the
basal Hornerstown Formation or the underlying Navesink Formation,
both of which are Maastrichtian in age. Baird (1967:261) ascertained
that the holotype of _Palaeotringa vetus_, from “friable green marl
near Arneytown” was from the lower (i.e., Cretaceous) part of the
Hornerstown Formation. The holotypes of _Telmatornis priscus_ and _T.
affinis_, from the Cream Ridge Marl Company pits, on the other hand,
are from the Navesink Formation. A more recently collected specimen
from this area is the proximal end of an ulna (NJSM 11900) collected
by Gerard R. Case from “marl piles near junction of Rtes. 537 and
539 in Upper Freehold Twp., Monmouth County, near Hornerstown.” This
definitely came from the Hornerstown Formation but it cannot be said
whether from the Cretaceous or Paleocene sediments included therein.
[Illustration: Figure 2.--Localities in southern New Jersey of the
main fossiliferous deposits that have yielded Cretaceous birds. (The
bold line demarcates the inner and outer coastal plain physiographic
provinces; B = Birmingham; H = Hornerstown; S = Sewell.)]
The second general locality is near Birmingham, Burlington County,
where the type of _Laornis edvardsianus_ was obtained from “greensand
of the upper, Cretaceous marl bed ... in the pits of the Pemberton Marl
Company” (Marsh, 1870:208). There is nothing to be added to Baird's
(1967) conclusion that this specimen is latest Cretaceous in age.
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