The New Egypt Formation is a
Late Cretaceous (
Maastrichtian)
geologic formation of the
Monmouth Group in New Jersey, United States.
[New Egypt Formation]
in the Paleobiology Database
Description
The basal New Egypt is a massive clayey,
glauconitic marl
Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae.
Marl makes up the lower part o ...
that closely resembles the
Navesink Formation
The Navesink Formation is a 66 to 70 mya greensand glauconitic marl and sand geological formation in New Jersey. It is known for its Cretaceous period fossil shell beds and dinosaur bones.
Description
The Navesink Formation, named after Nave ...
into which it grades below.
Ammonite
Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...
s and other invertebrates found at the Spheno Run site correlate well with the middle
Severn Formation of Maryland. Spheno Run has so far produced a remarkable number of vertebrate specimens, especially from marine reptiles, including: carapace elements from at least two species of turtles, ''
Peritresius ornatus'' and ''
Taphrosphys sulcatus''; various bone elements from at least two species of
mosasaurs including a sizable fragment of dentary bone from ''
Prognathodon rapax'' and numerous shed teeth from ''
Mosasaurus maximus''.
Vertebrate remains also include material from sharks, particularly teeth and unusually large vertebral centra from an individual lamniform shark ''
Squalicorax pristodontus'', bony fish, and, rarely, dinosaurs. In addition to the vertebrate collection, Spheno Run also yields an abundance of invertebrate species including: twenty-two bivalves, seven gastropods, six cephalopods, and one each of echinoidea, porifera, and scaphopoda. It is rare to find such an extensive array of both vertebrate and invertebrate species within one horizon in New Jersey.
[Carter et al., 2008]
Other fossils
;Bivalves
* '' Cucullaea vulgaris''
;Cephalopods
* ''Baculites ovatus
''Baculites'' ("walking stick rock") is an extinct genus of cephalopods with a nearly straight shell, included in the heteromorph ammonites. The genus, which lived worldwide throughout most of the Late Cretaceous, and which briefly survived th ...
''
;Fish
* '' Leptomylus forfex''
* '' Edaphadon mirificus''
;Reptiles
* '' Agomphus pectoralis''
* '' Catapleura repanda''
* '' Dryptosaurus aquilunguis''
* ''Hadrosaurus minor
''Hadrosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of hadrosaurid ornithopod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now the Woodbury Formation about 80 million to 78 million years ago. The holotype specimen was found in f ...
''
* ''Hyposaurus rogersii
''Hyposaurus'' is a genus of extinct marine dyrosaurid crocodyliform. Fossils have been found in Paleocene aged rocks of the Iullemmeden Basin in West Africa, Campanian–Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) Shendi Formation of Sudan and Maastrichtia ...
''
* ''Mosasaurus dekayi
''Mosasaurus'' (; "lizard of the Meuse River") is the type genus (defining example) of the mosasaurs, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian sta ...
''
* ''Mosasaurus hoffmanni
''Mosasaurus'' (; "lizard of the Meuse River") is the type genus (defining example) of the mosasaurs, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages o ...
''
* ?Hadrosauridae indet.
* ?Lambeosaurinae indet.
* Hadrosauromorpha indet.
See also
* Paleontology in New Jersey
The location of the state of New Jersey
Paleontology in New Jersey refers to paleontological research in the US state of New Jersey. The state is especially rich in marine deposits.
During the Precambrian, New Jersey was covered by a shallow ...
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
* {{doi, 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa085
* B. Stahl and D. Parris. 2004. The complete dentition of ''Edaphodon mirificus'' (Chondrichthyes: Holocephali) from a single individual. ''Journal of Paleontology'' 78(2):388-392
* W. B. Gallagher. 1993. The Cretaceous/Tertiary mass extinction event in the North Atlantic coastal plain. ''The Mosasaur'' 5:75-154
* W. B. Gallagher. 1984. Paleoecology of the Delaware Valley region. Part II: Cretaceous to Quartenary. ''The Mosasaur'' 2:9-43
* E. S. Gaffney. 1975. A revision of the side-necked turtle ''Taphrosphys sulcatus'' (Leidy) from the Cretaceous of New Jersey. ''American Museum Novitates'' (2571)1-24
* E. L. Troxell. 1925. ''Hyposaurus'', a marine crocodilian. ''American Journal of Science'' 9:489-514
* G. R. Wieland. 1905. Structure of the Upper Cretaceous turtles of New Jersey: Agomphus. ''The American Journal of Science'', series 4 20:430-444
* G. R. Wieland. 1904. Structure of the Upper Cretaceous turtles of New Jersey: Lytoloma. ''The American Journal of Science'', series 4 18:183-196
* E. D. Cope. 1875. The Vertebrata of the Cretaceous formations of the west. ''Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories'' 2:1-303
* E. D. Cope. 1870. Synopsis of the Extinct Batrachia, Reptilia and Aves of North America. Part II. ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'', New Series 14:105-235
* E. D. Cope. 1866. n the remains of a gigantic extinct dinosaur, from the Cretaceous Green Sand of New Jersey ''Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia'' 18:275-279
Geologic formations of New Jersey
Maastrichtian Stage of North America
Cretaceous geology of New Jersey
Sandstone formations
Marl formations
Shale formations
Shallow marine deposits
Paleontology in New Jersey