DescriptionGrallator (dinosaur footprints) (Cow Branch Formation, Upper Triassic; Solite Quarry, Pittsylvania County-Rockingham County border, Virginia-North Carolina border, USA) 10 (51382267112).jpg |
Grallator sp. - dinosaur footprints (concave epireliefs) from the Triassic of the Virginia-North Carolina border area, USA.
The Newark Supergroup is a thick, geographically-widespread stratigraphic unit in eastern America. It is Late Triassic to Early Jurassic in age and represents sediments and some lava flows that filled up old rift valleys roughly paralleling the modern-day Eastern Seaboard of America. The rift basins formed in the Triassic when the ancient Pangaea supercontinent attempted to break apart, but failed. A successful breakup of Pangaea occurred during the Jurassic. Most of the basin-filling rocks are terrestrial redbeds - hematite-rich siliciclastic sedimentary rocks, such as conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, and shale, deposited in nonmarine environments.
Seen here is a part of a large block with dinosaur footprints identified as Grallator. The tracks were made by theropods, a group of medium-sized to very large, bipedal, carnivorous (predatory) dinosaurs. The host rock is hard, blocky, quartzose, fine-grained sandstone to siltstone.
Stratigraphy: Cow Branch Formation, Newark Supergroup, Upper Triassic
Locality: Solite Quarry - pits on the Virginia-North Carolina state line, east of Gant Road & north of Rt. 770 (= Berry Hill Road), east-northeast of town of Eden, Pittsylvania County & Rockingham County, southern Virginia & northern North Carolina, USA (vicinity of 36° 32’ 23.44” North latitude, 79° 40’ 22.54” West longitude)
For more info., see:
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grallator" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grallator</a>
and
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newark_Supergroup" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newark_Supergroup</a> |