McCoy Brook Formation explained
The McCoy Brook Formation is a geological formation dating to roughly between 200 and 190 million years ago and covering the Hettangian to Sinemurian stages. The McCoy Brook Formation is found in outcrops around the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.[1]
Agen
The McCoy Brook Formation rests on the North Mountain Basalt, one of the volcanic flows associated with the Triassic–Jurassic boundary in the Newark Supergroup. The base of the McCoy Brook Formation is probably within 100,000 to 200,000 years of the boundary.[2]
Scots Bay Member
This thin unit (9 m) of lacustrine sediments is preserved in six small synclinal outcrops around Scots Bay on the west side of the Blomidon Peninsula. Originally named as the Scots Bay Formation, it is now correlated with the lowermost part of the McCoy Brook Formation, where it is referred to as the Scots Bay Member.[3] [4] The Scots Bay Member accumulated in an aerobic lake on the floor of the subtropical Fundy Rift Valley, associated with Silica-rich Hydrothermal Springs derived from the CAMP vulcanism, where the biota is composed of algal Stromatolites, Oncolites, Charophyta, Ostracoda, Gastropoda, Conchostraca, fish bones, calcispheres and logs.[5]
Fossil content
Ray-finned fish
Ray-finned fish |
---|
Name | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
---|
?Redfieldiid[7] | None designated | Wasson Bluff | Scots Bay member | Scales and skull bones | Found in lacustrine limestone and lacustrine basalt aggregate | |
aff. Semionotus sp. | None designated | Wasson Bluff | Scots Bay member | Disarticulated remains | Found in lacustrine limestone, lacustrine basalt aggregate, and lacustrine mudstone | |
|
Synapsids
Sphenodonts
Sphenodonts |
---|
Name | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
---|
Clevosaurus[10] | C. bairdi | Wasson Bluff | Lower McCoy Brook Formation | Partial skulls and jaws, isolated cranial bones, partial postcranium, postcranial bones | A sphenodontian of relatively small size, found in fluvio-lacustrine sandstone and mudstone, and basalt agglomerate | |
cf. Palycymalia | Indeterminate | Wasson Bluff | Middle McCoy Brook Formation | Isolated Remains | A sphenodontian | |
cf. Sigmala | Indeterminate | Wasson Bluff | Middle McCoy Brook Formation | Isolated Remains | A sphenodontian | |
|
Crocodyliforms
Protosuchidae |
---|
Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | width=25% | Notes | Images |
---|
Protosuchus[11] | P. micmac | Wasson Bluff | Lower McCoy Brook Formation | Partial lower jaw, several other skull bones | Found in fluvio-lacustrine sandstone and mudstone, and basalt agglomerate | |
Sphenosuchid | Indeterminate | - Blue sack west
- Wasson Bluff
| Lower McCoy Brook Formation |
| Found in fluvio-lacustrine sandstone and mudstone, and basalt agglomerate | |
|
Dinosaurs
Sauropodomorpha
Ichnotaxa
Ichnotaxa |
---|
Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
---|
Anchisauripus |
| - Blue sack west
- McKay Head
- Wasson Bluff
| Middle McCoy Brook Formation | Footprints | Small Theropod Footprints | |
Anomoepus |
| - Blue sack west
- McKay Head
- Old Wife Point tracksite
| Middle McCoy Brook Formation | Footprints | Ornithischian Footprints | |
Batrachopus[13] | - B. deweyii
- B. dispar
- B. ispp.
| - McKay Head
- Old Wife Point tracksite
- Wasson Bluff tracksite
| Middle McCoy Brook Formation | Footprints | Crocodrylomorph Footprints | |
Eubrontes | - E. giganteus
- E. sillimani
- E. minusculus
- E ispp.
| - Five Islands Provincial Park
- Old Wife Point tracksite
- Wasson Bluff tracksite
| Middle McCoy Brook Formation | Footprints | Medium-sized Theropod Footprints | |
Grallator | - G. cursorius
- G. tenuis
- G. ispp.
| - McKay Head
- Old Wife Point tracksite
| Middle McCoy Brook Formation | Footprints | Small Theropod Footprints | |
Otozoum[14] |
| - Blue sack east
- McKay Head
- Minas Basin tracksite
| Middle McCoy Brook Formation | Footprints | Sauropodomorph Footprints | |
|
See also
Notes and References
- Van Drecht . L. . Sedimentology and Paleoenvironment of an Early Jurassic Dinosaur Bone Bed, Wasson Bluff, Parrsboro, Nova Scotia . Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Sciences, Honours Department of Earth Sciences Dalhousie University, Halifax . 2014 . 1–80 . 11 October 2023.
- Book: Shubin, N. H. . Olsen, P. E. . Sues, H.-D. . 1994 . Early Jurassic small tetrapods from the McCoy Brook Formation of Nova Scotia, Canada . 242–250 . Fraser, N. C. . Sues H. D. . In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge, United Kingdom . 0-521-45899-4 .
- Tanner. L.H.. 1996. Formal definition of the Lower Jurassic McCoy Brook Formation, Fundy Rift Basin, eastern Canada. Atlantic Geology. 32. 2 . 127–135. 10.4138/2083 . 15 December 2012.
- Web site: Sedimentology and Paleontology of the Lower Jurassic Scots Bay Formation, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada. Hassan. H.S.. MSc thesis. 24 November 2012.
- De WET . C. C. B. . Hubert . J. F. . The Scots Bay formation, Nova Scotia, Canada, a Jurassic carbonate lake with Silica-rich hydrothermal springs . Sedimentology . 1989 . 36 . 5 . 857–873 . 10.1111/j.1365-3091.1989.tb01750.x . 1989Sedim..36..857W . 11 October 2023.
- Sues . H. D. . Olsen . P. E. . Stratigraphic and temporal context and faunal diversity of Permian-Jurassic continental tetrapod assemblages from the Fundy rift basin, eastern Canada . Atlantic Geology . 2015 . 51 . 1 . 139–205 . 10.4138/atlgeol.2015.006 . 11 October 2023.
- Olsen . P. E. . Paleontology and paleoecology of the Newark Supergroup (early Mesozoic, eastern North America) . Developments in Geotectonics . 1988 . 22 . 1 . 185–230 . 10.1016/B978-0-444-42903-2.50013-0 . 978-0-444-42903-2 . 11 October 2023.
- Fedak . Tim . Sues . Hans-Dieter . Olsen . Paul E. . First record of the tritylodontid cynodont Oligokyphus and cynodont postcranial bones from the McCoy Brook Formation of Nova Scotia, Canada . Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences . 2015 . 52 . 4 . 244–249 . 10.1139/cjes-2014-0220 . 2015CaJES..52..244F . 11 October 2023.
- Shubin . N. H. . Crompton . A. W. . Sues . H.D. . Olsen . P. E. . New fossil evidence on the sister-group of mammals and early Mesozoic faunal distributions . Science . 1991 . 251 . 4997 . 1063–1065 . 10.1126/science.251.4997.1063 . 17802092 . 1991Sci...251.1063S . 11 October 2023.
- Sues . H.-D. . Shubin, N. H. . Olsen, P. E. . 1994 . A new sphenodontian (Lepidosauria: Rhynchocephalia) from the McCoy Brook Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Nova Scotia, Canada . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 14 . 3 . 327–340 . 10.1080/02724634.1994.10011563. 1994JVPal..14..327S .
- Sues . H.-D. . Shubin, N. H. . Olsen, P. E. . Amaral, W. W. . 1996 . On the cranial structure of a new protosuchid (Archosauria: Crocodyliformes) from the McCoy Brook Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Nova Scotia, Canada . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 16 . 1 . 34–41 . 10.1080/02724634.1996.10011281 . 1996JVPal..16...34S .
- Fedak . Timothy J. . Description and evolutionary significance of the sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the early Jurassic (Hettangian) McCoy Brook Formation . Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University (Canada) . 2007 . 1–271 . 11 October 2023.
- Olsen . P. E. . Stop 11.3: Wasson Bluff. Paleontology . Tectonic, Depositional, and Paleoecological History of Early Mesozoic Rift Basins, Eastern North America . 1989. 351 . 2 . 159–161.
- Grantham . R. G. . Dinosaur tracks and mega-flutes in the Jurassic of Nova Scotia . First International Symposium on Dinosaur Tracks and Traces . 1986 . 14.