Griman Creek Formation
Stratigraphic range: late Albian-early-mid Cenomanian
~106–98 Ma

PreЄ

Type| Geological formation
Unit of| Rolling Downs Group
Sub-units| Coocoran Claystone & Wallangulla Sandstone Members
Underlies| Unconformity with Oligo-Miocene Cumborah Gravel
Overlies| Surat Siltstone, Wallumbilla Formation
Thickness| Up to 345 m (1,132 ft)
Lithology
Primary| Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone
Other| Conglomerate, coal
Location
Coordinates|  [ ⚑ ] : 29°24′S 147°42′E﻿ / ﻿29.4°S 147.7°E﻿ / -29.4; 147.7
Paleocoordinates|  [ ⚑ ] 64°24′S 134°54′E﻿ / ﻿64.4°S 134.9°E﻿ / -64.4; 134.9
Region|  Queensland
New South Wales
Country|  Australia
Extent| Surat Basin
Type section
Named for| Griman Creek
Named by| Reiser
Year defined| 1970

Griman Creek Formation (Australia)

The Griman Creek Formation is a geological formation in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, Australia whose strata date back to the Albian-Cenomanian stages of the mid-Cretaceous.[1] It is most notable being a major source of opal, found near the town of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales. Alongside the opal opalised fossils are also found, including those of dinosaurs and primitive monotremes.[2]

## Contents

* 1 Description
* 2 Background
* 3 Fossil content
* 3.1 Dipnoi
* 3.2 Actinopterygii
* 3.3 Mammals
* 3.4 Crocodyliformes
* 3.5 Dinosaurs
* 3.6 Pterosaurs
* 3.7 Testudines
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 5.1 Bibliography

## Description

As a whole, the formation primarily consists of thinly bedded medium to fine sandstone, siltstone and mudstone, with sporadic coal seams. In the vicinity of Lightning Ridge, it is divided up into two informal members the underlying Wallangulla Sandstone Member which primarily consists of red fine grained sandstone, light siltstone and grey claystone and is up to 30 metres (98 ft) thick while the overlying Coocoran Claystone consists of about 10 metres of claystone. The contact between the two units is sudden and unconformable. Discontinuous clay lens beds within the Wallangulla Sandstone Member near Lightning Ridge, referred to as the Finch Clay Facies, are one of Australia's primary sources of commercial precious opal, with many mines dug in the area. These deposits are also the primary source of fossils within the formation, a large proportion of which are preserved as semi-precious opalized pseudomorphs. The fauna found in lightning ridge indicates that the depositional environment of the Finch Clay Facies was in near-coastal freshwater lagoons.[1]

## Background

See also: Surat Basin

Australia was located near the South Pole in the Early and Middle Cretaceous
GPlates reconstruction for 100 Ma (Albian-Cenomanian and Early and Late Cretaceous boundary)

Paleogeography of the Turonian (90 Ma)
Original map by Ron Blakey

## Fossil content

Indeterminate avialan, euornithopod, and sauropod remains that were once misidentified as brachiosaurid are present in New South Wales, Australia.[2] Euornithopod tracks are also present in New South Wales.[citation needed]

### Dipnoi

Dipnoi of the Griman Creek Formation

Taxa | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images
Metaceratodus wollastoni[3] | M. wollastoni |  | Isolated tooth plates  |  |
C. diutinus |  | Isolated tooth plates  |  |
Neoceratodus potkooroki[4] | N. potkooroki |  | Isolated tooth plates  |  |

### Actinopterygii

Actinopterygians of the Griman Creek Formation

Taxa | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images
Calamopleurus?[4] | sp.  |  | Isolated jaw bones  |  |

### Mammals

Mammals

Genus | Species | Presence | Notes | Images
Kollikodon | K. ritchiei |  |
Steropodon | S. galmani |  |

Stirtodon | S. elizabethae |  |  |

### Crocodyliformes

Crocodyliformes

Genus | Species | Presence | Notes | Images
Isisfordia | I. molnari | Lightning Ridge  | Braincase and referred maxillary fragment[5] |

### Dinosaurs

Indeterminate ornithopods and iguanodontians are known from the formation.[6] Indeterminate avetheropods and megaraptorans are known from the formation.[1] Two species of titanosauriforms and one species of titanosaur are known from teeth.[7]

Dinosaurs

Genus | Species | Presence | Notes | Images
Fostoria | F. dhimbangunmal | New South Wales  | A member of Rhabdodontomorpha.  |
Fulgurotherium | F. australe | New South Wales  | [2] |
Rapator | R. ornitholestoides | New South Wales  | A megaraptoran; "Manual element"[2][8] |

Walgettosuchus | W. woodwardi | New South Wales  | "Vertebra"[2][9]
Later determined to be an indeterminate theropod[2] |

Weewarrasaurus | W. pobeni | New South Wales  | An ornithopod known from an isolated dentary[6] |
Ankylosauria | Indeterminate  |  | Osteoderm[10] |
Enantiornithes | Indeterminate  |  |
Megaraptora ("Lightning Claw")  | Indeterminate  | New South Wales  | Partial skeleton including parts of the lower arm, claws, lower leg, part of the hip, and pieces of ribs.[11] |
Noasauridae | Indeterminate  |  | Cervical vertebra[12] |
Sauropoda | Indeterminate  |  | A tooth

### Pterosaurs

Pterosaurs

Genus | Species | Presence | Notes | Images
Anhangueria | Indeterminate  |  | "two isolated tooth crowns", possible limb elements[citation needed] |

### Testudines

Turtles

Genus | Species | Presence | Notes | Images
Spoochelys | S. ormondea |  | Perichelydian stem-turtle[13][14] |
Chelidae | Indeterminate[15] |  |  |

## See also

* List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
* South Polar region of the Cretaceous
* Western Interior Seaway
* Cenomanian-Turonian extinction event
* Cenomanian formations

Australia

* Winton Formation, fossiliferous formation in Queensland
* Molecap Greensand, fossiliferous formation in Western Australia

South America

* Alcântara Formation, fossiliferous formation of the São Luís-Grajaú Basin, Brazil
* Candeleros and Lisandro Formation, fossiliferous formations of the Neuquén Basin, Argentima
* Cerro Fortaleza and Mata Amarilla Formation, fossiliferous formations of the Austral Basin
* Chipaque Formation, Cenomanian-Turonian source rock formation of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and Llanos Basin, Colombia
* Kem Kem Beds, Cenomanian Lagerstätte in Morocco
* Aoufous Formation
* Echkar Formation, fossiliferous formation of the Iullemmeden Basin, Niger

North America

* Cedar Mountain Formation
* Dakota Formation

Europe

* Cambridge Greensand, fossiliferous formation in England

Asia

* Burmese amber
* Sannine Formation
* Khodzhakul Formation, fossiliferous formation in Uzbekistan

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bell et al., 2019
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Weishampel et al., 2004, pp.573-574
3. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `4species`
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Rodney W. Berrell, Lionel Cavin, Kate Trinajstic, Catherine Boisvert, Elizabeth T. Smith, The first record of amiid fishes (Halecomorphi, Amiiformes, Amiidae, Calamopleurini?) from Eastern Gondwana, Cretaceous Research, 2023, 105538, ISSN 0195-6671, doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105538.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195667123000666
5. ↑ Hart et al., 2019
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Bell et al., 2018
7. ↑ Frauenfelder et al. 2020
8. ↑ "Table 4.1," in Weishampel et al., 2004, p.74
9. ↑ "Table 4.1," in Weishampel et al., 2004, p.78
10. ↑ Bell et al., 2017
11. ↑ Bell et al. 2016
12. ↑ Brougham et al., 2020
13. ↑ T-Bone Extension, Coocoran Opal Fields at Fossilworks.org
14. ↑ Smith et al., 2013
15. ↑ Smith, Elizabeth T. (September 2010). "Early Cretaceous chelids from Lightning Ridge, New South Wales" (in en). Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 34 (3): 375–384. doi:10.1080/03115518.2010.488117. ISSN 0311-5518. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03115518.2010.488117.

### Bibliography

* Frauenfelder, Timothy G.; Nicolàs E. Campione; Elizabeth T. Smith, and Phil R. Bell. 2020. Diversity and palaeoecology of Australia's southern‐most sauropods, Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia. Lethaia 54\. 354-367. Accessed 2020-11-09.
* Brougham, Tom; Elizabeth T. Smith, and Phil R. Bell. 2020. Noasaurids are a component of the Australian 'mid'-Cretaceous theropod fauna. Scientific Reports 10\. 1428. Accessed 2020-01-29. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-57667-7 ISSN 2045-2322
* Bell, Phil R.; Federico Fanti; Lachlan J. Hart; Luke A. Milan; Stephen J. Craven; Thomas Brougham, and Elizabeth Smith. 2019. Revised geology, age, and vertebrate diversity of the dinosaur-bearing Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 514\. 655–671. Accessed 2020-01-29. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.11.020
* Hart, Lachlan J.; Phil R. Bell; Elizabeth T. Smith, and Steven W. Salisbury. 2019. Isisfordia molnari sp. nov., a new basal eusuchian from the mid-Cretaceous of Lightning Ridge, Australia. PeerJ 7\. e7166. Accessed 2020-01-29. doi:10.7717/peerj.7166ISSN 2167-8359 PMC 6590469 PMID 31275756
* Bell, Phil R.; Matthew C. Herne; Tom Brougham, and Elizabeth T. Smith. 2018. Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia. PeerJ 6\. e6008. Accessed 2020-01-29. doi:10.7717/peerj.6008 PMID 30533306 PMC 6284429
* Bell, Phil R.; Michael E. Burns, and Elizabeth T. Smith. 2017. A probable ankylosaurian (Dinosauria, Thyreophora) from the Early Cretaceous of New South Wales, Australia. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 42\. 120–124. Accessed 2017-10-23. doi:10.1080/03115518.2017.1384851 ISSN 0311-5518
* Bell, Phil R.; Andrea Cau; Federico Fanti, and Elizabeth T. Smith. 2016. A large-clawed theropod (Dinosauria: Tetanurae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Australia and the Gondwanan origin of megaraptorid theropods. Gondwana Research 36\. 473-487. Accessed 2020-11-09.
* Smith, Elizabeth T, and Benjamin P. Kear. 2013. Spoochelys ormondea gen. et sp. nov., an Archaic Meiolaniid-Like Turtle from the Early Cretaceous of Lightning Ridge, Australia. Morphology and Evolution of Turtles Brinkman, Donald B.; Holroyd, Patricia A.; Gardner, James D.. 121–146. Accessed 2019-10-04. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4309-0_9 ISBN 9789400743083
* Weishampel, David B.; Peter Dodson, and Halszka Osmólska (eds.). 2004. The Dinosauria, 2nd edition, 1–880. Berkeley: University of California Press. Accessed 2019-02-21. ISBN:0-520-24209-2

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