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
* 3.3.1 Monotremes
* 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.

### Dipnoi

Dipnoi of the Griman Creek Formation

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

#### Monotremes

Mammals

Genus | Species | Presence | Materials | Notes | Images
Dharragarra[5] | D. aurora |  | A partial left mandibular ramus.  | A monotreme.  |
Kollikodon[5] | K. ritchiei |  | An opalised dentary fragment, with one premolar and two molars in situ, as well as a referred maxillary fragment containing the last premolar and all four molars  | A monotreme.  |
Opalios[5] | O. splendens |  | A fragmentary left dentary.  | A monotreme.  |
Parvopalus | P. clytiei |  | A partial left dentary.  | A monotreme.  |
Steropodon | S. galmani |  |  | A monotreme  |
Stirtodon | S. elizabethae |  | A large isolated premolars.  | A monotreme  |

### Crocodyliformes

Crocodyliformes

Genus | Species | Presence | Materials | Notes | Images
Isisfordia | I. molnari | Lightning Ridge  | Braincase and referred maxillary fragment[6] | A crocodyliform.  |

### Dinosaurs

Indeterminate ornithopods and iguanodontians are known from the formation.[1] 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[1] |
Ankylosauria | Indeterminate  |  | Osteoderm[10] |
Elasmaria indet.[11] | Indeterminate  | New South Wales  | An articulated hindlimb comprising the femur, tibia, astragalus  |
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.[12] |
Noasauridae | Indeterminate  |  | Cervical vertebra[13] |
Sauropoda | Indeterminate  |  | Five morphotypes of teeth indicating at least two distinct non-titanosaur titanosauriform species and one titanosaur species.[14]

### Pterosaurs

Pterosaurs

Genus | Species | Presence | Notes | Images
Anhangueria | Indeterminate  |  |

### Testudines

Turtles

Genus | Species | Presence | Notes | Images
Spoochelys | S. ormondea |  | Perichelydian stem-turtle[15][16] |
Chelidae | Indeterminate[17] |  |  |

## See also

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

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Bell et al. 2019.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Weishampel, Dodson & Osmólska 2004, pp. 573–574.
3. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `4species`
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kemp, Anne; Berrell, Rodney (3 May 2020). "A New Species of Fossil Lungfish (Osteichthyes: Dipnoi) from the Cretaceous of Australia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 40 (3). doi:10.1080/02724634.2020.1822369. Bibcode: 2020JVPal..40E2369K.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Flannery, Timothy F.; McCurry, Matthew R.; Rich, Thomas H.; Vickers-Rich, Patricia; Smith, Elizabeth T.; Helgen, Kristofer M. (2024-04-02). "A diverse assemblage of monotremes (Monotremata) from the Cenomanian Lightning Ridge fauna of New South Wales, Australia". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 48 (2): 319–337. doi:10.1080/03115518.2024.2348753. ISSN 0311-5518. Bibcode: 2024Alch...48..319F.
6. ↑ Hart et al. 2019.
7. ↑ Frauenfelder et al. 2021.
8. ↑ "Table 4.1," in Weishampel, Dodson & Osmólska 2004, p. 74
9. ↑ "Table 4.1," in Weishampel, Dodson & Osmólska 2004, p. 78
10. ↑ Bell, Burns & Smith 2018.
11. ↑ Bell, P. R.; Herne, M. C.; Birch, S. A.; Molnar, R. E.; Smith, E. T. (2025-08-10). "Articulated hindlimb of a small-bodied ornithopod dinosaur from the Cenomanian Griman Creek Formation of New South Wales, Australia". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology: 1–16. doi:10.1080/03115518.2025.2537025.
12. ↑ Bell et al. 2016.
13. ↑ Birch, Smith & Bell 2020.
14. ↑ Frauenfelder, Timothy G.; Campione, Nicolás E.; Smith, Elizabeth T.; Bell, Phil R. (29 October 2020). "Diversity and palaeoecology of Australia's southern-most sauropods, Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia" (in en). Lethaia 54 (3): 354–367. doi:10.1111/let.12407. ISSN 0024-1164. Bibcode: 2021Letha..54..354F. https://www.scup.com/doi/full/10.1111/let.12407. Retrieved 20 September 2025.
15. ↑ T-Bone Extension, Coocoran Opal Fields at Fossilworks.org
16. ↑ Smith & Kear 2013.
17. ↑ Smith, Elizabeth T. (September 2010). "Early Cretaceous chelids from Lightning Ridge, New South Wales". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 34 (3): 375–384. doi:10.1080/03115518.2010.488117. Bibcode: 2010Alch...34..375S.

### Bibliography

* Frauenfelder, Timothy G.; Campione, Nicolás E.; Smith, Elizabeth T.; Bell, Phil R. (July 2021). "Diversity and palaeoecology of Australia's southern-most sauropods, Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia". Lethaia 54 (3): 354–367. doi:10.1111/let.12407. Bibcode: 2021Letha..54..354F.
* Birch, Sienna A.; Smith, Elizabeth T.; Bell, Phil R. (29 January 2020). "Noasaurids are a component of the Australian 'mid'-Cretaceous theropod fauna". Scientific Reports 10 (1): 1428. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-57667-7. PMID 31996712. Bibcode: 2020NatSR..10.1428B.
* Bell, Phil R.; Fanti, Federico; Hart, Lachlan J.; Milan, Luke A.; Craven, Stephen J.; Birch, Sienna A.; Smith, Elizabeth (January 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. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.11.020. Bibcode: 2019PPP...514..655B.
* Hart, Lachlan J.; Bell, Phil R.; Smith, Elizabeth T.; Salisbury, Steven W. (21 June 2019). "Isisfordia molnari sp. nov . , a new basal eusuchian from the mid-Cretaceous of Lightning Ridge, Australia". PeerJ 7. doi:10.7717/peerj.7166. PMID 31275756.
* Bell, Phil R.; Herne, Matthew C.; Brougham, Tom; Smith, Elizabeth T. (4 December 2018). "Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia". PeerJ 6. doi:10.7717/peerj.6008. PMID 30533306.
* Bell, Phil R.; Burns, Michael E.; Smith, Elizabeth T. (2 January 2018). "A probable ankylosaurian (Dinosauria, Thyreophora) from the Early Cretaceous of New South Wales, Australia". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 42 (1): 120–124. doi:10.1080/03115518.2017.1384851. Bibcode: 2018Alch...42..120B.
* Bell, Phil R.; Cau, Andrea; Fanti, Federico; Smith, Elizabeth T. (August 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. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2015.08.004. Bibcode: 2016GondR..36..473B.
* Smith, Elizabeth T.; Kear, Benjamin P. (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. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. pp. 121–146. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4309-0_9. ISBN 978-94-007-4308-3.
* Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka, eds (2004). The Dinosauria (2nd ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-94143-4.

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griman Creek Formation. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Earth:Griman_Creek_Formation&oldid=4159966"