Future SPS Meetings and Events
July … no meeting……
August SPS Members Meeting
Our guest speaker for the month of August is Dr. Robert McCord who will be discussing his work on trace fossils from Arizona.
Link to Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89591606048?pwd=aYx0JaUZwKaz27dvzGkv5jfypFci3o.1
September SPS Members Meeting
Our guest speaker for the month of September is Dr. James Kirkland.
DINOSAUR DECIMATION: BERRIASIAN PALEOSOLS IN THE LOWER YELLOW CAT MEMBER OF THE CEDAR MOUNTAIN FORMATION IN EASTERN UTAH: EVIDENCE OF EUROAMERICAN JURASSIC-CRETACEOUS (J-K) DINOSAUR EXTINCTION DURING AN EXCEPTIONALLY WET PERIOD IN THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES
James Kirkland
Utah Geological Survey, PO Box 146100, Salt Lake City, UT USA 84114-610
A Berriasian age (145–142 Ma) for the base of the lower Yellow Cat Mbr. (YC) of the Cedar Mountain Fm. (CM) in Utah is indicated by microfossils, chemostratigraphy, and U-Pb dating of paleosols, with the onset of deposition near the beginning of Cretaceous. Euroamerican Morrison “style” dinosaur faunas dominated by diverse sauropods (mostly diplodocids), stegosaurs, small to medium ornithopods, large theropods (ceratosaurs, megalosaurids, and allosaurids), and uncommon coelurosaurs persisted for the last 10 myr of the Jurassic. By contrast, the first 25 myr of the Early Cretaceous had Wealden “style” dinosaur faunas dominated by a low diversity of turiasaur and titanosauriform sauropods, polacanthid ankylosaurs, large ornithopods, large megalosauroid spinosaurids (exclusive to Europe), allosauroid carcharodontosaurid theropods, and an increased abundance of larger coelurosaurs reflecting a profound J-K dinosaur faunal turnover. The paleosol sequence at the base of the YC, laterally equivalent to the fluvial Buckhorn Conglomerate of the CM, consists of basal ferruginous paleosols (gleysols) overlain by silicified peat (histosols), which are then overlain by calcareous paleosols (vertisols and aridosols). A kaolinite bed (oxisol) has been identified at the J-K unconformity locally indicating a laterite was developed on the Morrison erosion surface.. Based on these paleosols, Utah’s earliest Cretaceous is characterized by an interval of unusually wet paleoclimates bracketed by drier paleoclimates during the Late Jurassic and remainder of the Early Cretaceous. Potential drivers close to the J-K boundary for this climatic excursion and faunal turnover include a mega-shield volcano(s) at Shatsky Rise in the western Pacific, and less significantly South Africa’s Morokweng impact. Was the Cretaceous bookmarked by asteroid impacts?
Link to Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88189417540?pwd=yPaIoUi6vitBQrBGraagrlLRtZVbNt.1
October SPS Members Meeting
Our guest speaker for the month of October is Dr. Andrew A. Farke. The title and topic of Dr. Farke’s talk is yet to be determined.
Link to Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89023347377?pwd=NezToDLl2pN1gujNsoF6VWS8gPYHYI.1
November SPS members Meeting
Our guest speaker for the month of November is Dr. John-Paul Zonneveld. The title and topic of Dr. Zonnevelds talk is yet to be determined.
Link to Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83452764054?pwd=8oQVhVsbybTFo14x2iuzCtmb3D96Lo.1
December SPS members Meeting
Link to Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89602190348?pwd=9DaRdAufLaoIujinOSbC2LL0bqPb4z.1