![Austin Chalk stratigraphic column in Texas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Austin_Chalk_stratigraphic_column_in_Texas.png)
The Woodbine Group is a geological
formation
Formation may refer to:
Linguistics
* Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes
* Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes
Mathematics and science
* Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...
in east
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
whose strata date back to the Early to Middle
Cenomanian
The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the s ...
age of the
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...
.
It is the producing formation of the giant
East Texas Oil Field
The East Texas Oil Field is a large oil and gas field in east Texas. Covering and parts of five counties, and having 30,340 historic and active oil wells, it is the second-largest oil field in the United States outside Alaska, and first in tot ...
(also known as the "Black Giant") from which over 5.42 billion barrels of oil have been produced. The Woodbine overlies the Maness Shale,
Buda Limestone
The Buda Limestone is a geological formation in the High Plains and Trans-Pecos regions of West Texas and in southern New Mexico, whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Pterosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered fro ...
, or older rocks, and underlies the
Eagle Ford Group
The Eagle Ford Group (also called the Eagle Ford Shale) is a sedimentary rock formation deposited during the Cenomanian and Turonian ages of the Late Cretaceous over much of the modern-day state of Texas. The Eagle Ford is predominantly c ...
or
Austin Chalk
The Austin Chalk is an upper Cretaceous geologic formation in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. It is named after type section outcrops near Austin, Texas. The formation is made up of chalk and marl.
Fossils
The putative galloanseran ...
. In outcrop the Woodbine Group has been subdivided into the Lewisville Sandstone, Dexter Sandstone, and/or Pepper Shale formations.
Thin-bedded sands of the Woodbine and Eagle Ford are collectively referred to as the "Eaglebine" oil and gas play in the southwestern portion of the East Texas region.
Dinosaur and crocodilian remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.
[Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Cretaceous, North America)." ''in'' Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 574-588. .] This fossil formation preserves organisms that were endemic to
Appalachia
Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...
.
The Woodbine Group was first mapped and named by
Robert T. Hill
Robert Thomas Hill (August 11, 1858 – July 20, 1941) was a significant figure in the development of American geology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a pioneer Texas geologist, Hill discovered and named the Comanche series of t ...
, known as the "Father of Texas Geology", for outcrops near the small town of
Woodbine, Texas
Woodbine is a small unincorporated community in Cooke County, Texas, a few miles south of U.S. Route 82 east of Gainesville, Texas. The population was 246 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Gainesville TX-Micropolitan Statistical Area and th ...
in 1901.
The Woodbine represents ancient river and delta systems that originated from erosion of the Ouachita Uplift in modern-day
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
and
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
and the Sabine Uplift in modern-day
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
and
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. Sediments from these deltas flowed into the East Texas and Brazos Basins of the ancient East
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
shelf.
[Denne, R. A., and Breyer, J. A. (2016). Regional depositional episodes of the Cenomanian-Turonian Eagle Ford and Woodbine groups of Texas: ''in'' Breyer, J. A. (ed.), The Eagle Ford Shale: A renaissance in U.S. oil production, AAPG Memoir 110, p. 85-125.]
The Arlington Archosaur Site is a location in
Arlington, Texas
Arlington is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It forms part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region. ...
that currently excavates fossils from the Woodbine Group. It became available to access by the
University of Texas at Arlington
The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of Te ...
(UTA) in spring of 2008. UTA and the
Dallas Paleontological Society
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wi ...
have excavated at the site up to present day, where work continues.
[About Arlington Archosaur Site](_blank)
/ref>
Vertebrate paleofauna
*'' Scolomastax sahlsteini'': A paralligatorid endemic to Appalachia.
*'' Protohadros byrdi'': "Partial skull, teeth, partial postcranium."["Table 19.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 417.] A hadrosaur found in Flower Mound, Texas
Flower Mound is an incorporated town located in Denton and Tarrant counties in the U.S. state of Texas. Located northwest of Dallas and northeast of Fort Worth adjacent to Grapevine Lake, the town derives its name from a prominent mound locate ...
in the early 1990s.
*''Dallasaurus
''Dallasaurus'' ("Dallas lizard") is a basal mosasauroid from the Upper Cretaceous of North America. Along with ''Russellosaurus'', ''Dallasaurus'' is one of the two oldest mosasauroid taxa currently known from North America. It is also the small ...
turneri'': Full skeleton.
*''Woodbinesuchus
''Woodbinesuchus'' (meaning "Woodbine Formation crocodile") is an extinct genus of goniopholidid mesoeucrocodylian. Its fossils have been recovered from the Cenomanian-age Upper Cretaceous Woodbine Formation of Texas. Crocodyliform fossils are wi ...
byersmauricei'': Lower jaw and a variety of postcranial elements, such as vertebrae, limb bones, shoulder and hip bones, and bony armor.[Lee, Yuong–Nam (1997). The Archosauria from the Woodbine Formation (Cenomanian) in Texas: Journal of Paleontology, v. 71, n.6, p. 1147–1156]
*Unnamed theropod
Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...
[Fossils at AAS](_blank)
/ref>
*''Deltasuchus
''Deltasuchus'' ("delta crocodile") is a genus of neosuchian crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous of Texas, specifically in the Woodbine Formation, which was a part of the Appalachian continent during the Cretaceous. It is known from one speci ...
motherali'': Parts of the upper skull, most likely the apex predator in its ecosystem.
*'' Terminonaris robusta'': A pholidosaurid crocodyliform whose remains have been found in North America and Europe.
*'' Flexomornis howei'': A enantiornithe bird.
*'' Pleurochayah appalachius'': A recently described species of bothremydid turtle, which is also known as a side-necked turtle.[Adrian, B., Smith, H.F., Noto, C.R. et al. An early bothremydid from the Arlington Archosaur Site of Texas. Sci Rep 11, 9555 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88905-1]
* ''Mawsonia'' sp., a giant Coelacanth
The coelacanths ( ) are fish belonging to the order Actinistia that includes two extant species in the genus ''Latimeria'': the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (''Latimeria chalumnae''), primarily found near the Comoro Islands off the east coast ...
known from Africa and South America, but fossils of the genus were described in 2021.
*'' Bardackichthys carteri'': an ichthyodectiform
Ichthyodectiformes is an extinct order of marine stem-teleost ray-finned fish. The order is named after the genus '' Ichthyodectes'', established by Edward Drinker Cope in 1870. Ichthyodectiforms are usually considered to be some of the closest ...
fish.
*Indeterminate Nodosauridae
Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period in what is now North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.
Description
Nodosaurids, like their close relatives the ankylosaurids, we ...
.
*Indeterminate Carcharodontosauridae
Carcharodontosauridae (carcharodontosaurids; from the Greek καρχαροδοντόσαυρος, ''carcharodontósauros'': "shark-toothed lizards") is a group of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. In 1931, Ernst Stromer named Carcharodontosauridae ...
.
*Indeterminate Tyrannosauroidea
Tyrannosauroidea (meaning 'tyrant lizard forms') is a superfamily (or clade) of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs that includes the family Tyrannosauridae as well as more basal relatives. Tyrannosauroids lived on the Laurasian supercontinent b ...
.
*Indeterminate Ornithomimosauria
Ornithomimosauria ("bird-mimic lizards") are theropod dinosaurs which bore a superficial resemblance to the modern-day ostrich. They were fast, omnivorous or herbivorous dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period of Laurasia (now Asia, Europe and Nor ...
.
*Indeterminate Dromaeosauridae
Dromaeosauridae () is a family of feathered theropod dinosaurs. They were generally small to medium-sized feathered carnivores that flourished in the Cretaceous Period. The name Dromaeosauridae means 'running lizards', from Greek ('), meaning ...
.
*Indeterminate Troodontidae
Troodontidae is a clade of bird-like theropod dinosaurs. During most of the 20th century, troodontid fossils were few and incomplete and they have therefore been allied, at various times, with many dinosaurian lineages. More recent fossil disco ...
.
*Indeterminate Coelurosauria
Coelurosauria (; from Greek, meaning "hollow tailed lizards") is the clade containing all theropod dinosaurs more closely related to birds than to carnosaurs.
Coelurosauria is a subgroup of theropod dinosaurs that includes compsognathids, t ...
.
Other fossils
Other vertebrate fossils that have been identified in the Woodbine include lungfish
Lungfish are freshwater vertebrates belonging to the order Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for retaining ancestral characteristics within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and ancestral structures within Sarcopterygii, i ...
, fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
, turtle
Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...
s, shark
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...
s, and coprolite
A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is de ...
s containing bones. Invertebrate fossils found in the Woodbine include 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, ''Inoceramus
''Inoceramus'' (Greek: translation "strong pot") is an extinct genus of fossil marine pteriomorphian bivalves that superficially resembled the related winged pearly oysters of the extant genus '' Pteria''. They lived from the Early Jurassic ...
'', oyster
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...
s, crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s, and agglutinated foraminifera
Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell biology), ectoplasm for catching food and ot ...
.
*'' Necrocarcinus christinae'': a podotreme crab.
See also
* List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
This list of dinosaur-bearing rock formations is a list of geologic formations in which dinosaur fossils have been documented.
Containing body fossils
* List of stratigraphic units with dinosaur body fossils
** List of stratigraphic units with ...
References
{{coord missing, Texas
Geologic formations of Arkansas
Cretaceous Arkansas
Geologic formations of Texas
Cretaceous geology of Texas
Upper Cretaceous Series of North America
Cenomanian Stage
Petroleum in Texas