Bushveld Sandstone Explained

Bushveld Sandstone
Type:	Geological formation
Age:	Hettangian-Sinemurian ~
Period:	Sinemurian
Prilithology:	Sandstone
Region:	Mpumalanga, Limpopo
Coordinates:	-22.8°N 29.3°W
Paleocoordinates:	-37.9°N 4.7°W
Unitof:	Stormberg Group

The Bushveld Sandstone is a geological formation dating to roughly between 201 and 189 million years ago and covering the Carnian to Norian stages. The Bushveld Sandstone is found in Transvaal, South Africa, and is a member of the Stormberg Group. As its name suggests, it consists mainly of sandstone. Fossils of the prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus have been recovered from the Bushveld Sandstone.^[1]

The Bushveld Sandstone was thought to be Late Triassic age, but was considered to be temporally correlative to the Clarens Formation by Smith et al. (1993).^[2]

Vertebrate fauna

Dinosaur tracks are located in Transvaal.

Dinosaurs
Genus	Species	Presence	Notes	Images
Gigantoscelus	G. molengraaffi	Geographically located in Transvaal.	Remains now considered to be of indeterminate prosauropod origin. "Distal femur."^[3]
Gryponyx	G. transvaalensis	Geographically located in Transvaal.	Remains now considered to be of indeterminate prosauropod origin. "Ungual, distal metatarsal."
Massospondylus^[4]	M. carinatus	Geographically located in Transvaal. Geochronologically located in Early Jurassic strata.

See also

• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
• List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in South Africa
• Clarens Formation

Notes and References

1. Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Triassic, Africa)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 528–529. .
2. Smith RMH, Eriksson PG, Botha WJ. A Review of the Stratigraphy and Sedimentary Environments of the Karoo-Aged Basins of Southern Africa. Journal of African Earth Sciences. 1993;16:143–169. doi: 10.1016/0899-5362(93)90164-L.
3. "Table 12.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 236.
4. Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Early Jurassic, Africa)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 535–536. .