The Lower Cretaceous Patuxent Formation Ichnofauna of Virginia

Abstract

The vertebrate fauna from the Lower Cretaceous Patuxent Formation of Virginia is composed of a single partial fish impression from the James River at Dutch Gap and a diverse tetrapod ichnofauna from near Fredericksburg that includes trace fossils made by frogs, turtles, theropods, sauropods, ankylosaurs, and ornithopods. The footprints occur on overbank deposits preserved locally within a fluvial braided-stream sequence that formed near the western border of the Early Cretaceous Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Keywords:

• Patuxent Formation
• Lower Cretaceous
• Virginia
• Dinosaur footprints
• Paleoclimate

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are indebted to a number of individuals who offered help in uncovering and casting representative tracks at the tracksites discussed here: Selene Chou, Y.C. Moy, Jim Murray, Stephen F. Obermeier, Jean M. Self-Trail, and Emily Tracy Smith. Martin Lockley offered observations and insights on the tracks at site 4, which we found to be very helpful. We are also very grateful to the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors, who gave us permission to work on the Spotsylvania track site on county owned land and provided us use of equipment to aid in uncovering the site.