| Aztec Sandstone | |
| Type: | Sedimentary |
| Age: | Early Jurassic |
| Period: | Early Jurassic |
| Prilithology: | sandstone |
| Otherlithology: | arenite, sand |
| Namedby: | D. F. Hewett[1] |
| Year Ts: | 1931 |
| Region: | Mojave Desert |
| Coordinates: | 35.4°N -115.5°W |
| Paleocoordinates: | 20.8°N -53.4°W |
| Underlies: | Willow Tank Formation[2] |
| Overlies: | Chinle Formation |
| Thickness: | 2100feet in Goodsprings quadrangle 2500feet in Muddy Mountain area |
| Area: | Nevada, Arizona, California[3] |
The Aztec Sandstone is an Early Jurassic geological formation of primarily eolian sand from which fossil pterosaur tracks have been recovered.[4] The formation is exposed in the Mojave Desert of Arizona, California and Nevada. Aztec Sandstone is named after the Aztec Tank,[5] a lake in the Spring Mountain region of Nevada.
The Aztec Sandstone is made up of two units. The lower resistant sandstone unit (100m (300feet) thick) is tan to off-white in outcrops but pinkish in fresh exposures. Cross-bedded lenses can easily be observed. Frosted and pitted quartz grains well-cemented by silica are described by Evans in 1958 and 1971. The upper and less resistant unit (200m thick) consists of alternating white quartz arenites and red to brown silty sands.[6]
The formation has provided the following ichnofossils attributed to vertebrates:[4]
| Ichnofossils of the Aztec Sandstone | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Member | Abundance | Notes | Images |
| Anchisauripus[7] | Reclassified as Grallator | |||||
| Brasilichnium | ||||||
| Grallator[8] | ||||||
| Navahopus | ||||||
| Octopodichnus | ||||||
| Pteraichnus[9] | ||||||
| Skolithos | ||||||