Sundance Formation

The Sundance Formation is a western North American sequence of Middle Jurassic to Upper Jurassic age^[1] Dating from the Bathonian to the Oxfordian, around 168-157 Ma, It is up to 100 metres thick^[2] and consists of marine shale, sandy shale, sandstone, and limestone deposited in the Sundance Sea, an inland sea that covered large parts of western North America during the Middle and early Late Jurassic.

Sundance Formation
Stratigraphic range: Bathonian - Oxfordian 168–157 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Type	Geological formation
Sub-units	Canyon Springs Sandstone Member, Hulett Sandstone Member, Lak Member, Pine Butte Member, Redwater Shale Member, Stockade Beaver (Shale) Member, Windy Hill Sandstone Member
Underlies	Morrison Formation
Overlies	Gypsum Springs Formation
Thickness	Up to 100 m
Lithology
Primary	shale
Other	limestone, sandstone
Location
Region	Western North America
Country	United States
Type section
Named for	Sundance, Wyoming
Named by	Darton
Year defined	1904

Geology

The Sundance Formation underlies the western North American Morrison Formation, the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in the Americas, and is separated by a disconformity from the underlying Middle Jurassic Gypsum Springs Formation.

Fossils

The Sundance Formation is known for fossils of an extinct species of marine cephalopod, the belemnite Pachyteuthis densus, as well as several extinct species of oyster, including Deltoideum, Liostrea, and Gryphaea nebrascensis. Other common invertebrates include crinoids, echinoids, gastropods, insects, ostracods, and foraminifera.^[3]

Fossil dinosaur 'footprints' on an ancient ocean shoreline are preserved in the formation and protected at the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite, located in the Bureau of Land Management Red Gulch/Alkali National Back Country Byway, near Shell in Big Horn County, Wyoming.^[4]

Paleobiota

Vertebrates

Genus	Species	Member	Material	Notes
Pteraichnus[5]	P. stokesi	Alcova/Grey Reef Reservoir, Seminoe Reservoir and Bighorn Canyon National Recreation area. (Wyoming)[5]	Trace fossils	A Pteraichnid belonging to the Pterodactyloidea.
Tatenectes	T. laramiensis	Redwater Shale Member		A Cryptoclidid Plesiosaur.
Pantosaurus	P. striatus	Redwater Shale Member		A Cryptoclidid Plesiosaur.
Megalneusaurus	M. rex	Redwater Shale Member		A Thallasophonid Pliosaur.
Baptanodon	B. natans	Redwater Shale Member		An Ophthalmosaurid Ichthyosaur.
Plesiosaurus	"P." shirleyensis		Material now lost.[6]	Possibly a Plesiosaurid Plesiosaur.

Invertebrates

Genus	Species	Member	Material	Notes
Pachyteuthis	P. densus			A Belemnoid.

Fish

Genus	Species	Member	Material	Notes
Occithrissops	O. willsoni			An ichthyodectiform
Caturus	C. dartoni			A caturid amiiform
Hybodontiformes	indeterminate	Redwater Shale Member	Teeth	Belongs to a group of shark like cartilaginous fish called the Hybodontiformes. This might either be Hybodus or Asteracanthus.[7] Found in association with Tatenectes.