Dinosaurs that did not die: Evidence for Paleocene dinosaurs in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone, San Juan Basin, New Mexico

GSA Special Papers
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Abstract

Palynologic and paleomagnetic data confirm a Paleocene age for the Ojo Alamo Sandstone (and its contained dinosaurs) throughout the San Juan Basin of New Mexico. The recently reported discovery of 34 skeletal elements from a single hadrosaur in the Ojo Alamo provides unequivocal evidence that these bones were not reworked from underlying Cretaceous strata. Geochemical studies of samples from several single-dinosaur-bone specimens from the Paleocene Ojo Alamo Sandstone and the underlying Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Kirtland Formation show that mineralized bones from these two rock units contain distinctly different abundances of uranium and rare-earth elements and demonstrate that Cretaceous and Paleocene bones were mineralized at different times when mineralizing fluids had distinctly different chemical compositions. These findings indicate that the dinosaur bone from the Paleocene Ojo Alamo is indigenous and not reworked. These data show that a relatively diverse assemblage of dinosaurs survived the end-Cretaceous asteroid-impact extinction event of 65.5 Ma. The San Juan Basin’s Paleocene dinosaur fauna is herein named the Alamoan fauna. Magnetic-polarity chronology shows that these survivors lived for about one million years into the Paleocene and then became extinct around 64.5 Ma. We suggest that a plausible survival mechanism for this Lazarus fauna may have been the large numbers of buried dinosaur eggs, laid just before the asteroid impact occurred. These buried eggs would have provided a safe haven for developing dinosaur embryos for the first one to two years after the impact, thereby making it possible for them to survive the worst of the impact’s early devastation.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Dinosaurs that did not die: Evidence for Paleocene dinosaurs in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone, San Juan Basin, New Mexico
Series title GSA Special Papers
DOI 10.1130/0-8137-2356-6.307
Volume 356
Year Published 2002
Language English
Publisher GSA
Contributing office(s) Central Energy Resources Science Center, Central Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center
Description 30 p.
First page 307
Last page 336
Country United States
State Colorado, New Mexico
Other Geospatial San Juan Basin
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