Cretaceous Research In Tennessee

03/25/2024

Disturbing paleontological news from South Carolina...

Paleontologist Robert Boessenecker is at the center of an investigation into rare fossils that disappeared from the College of Charleston's Mace Brown Museum.

08/26/2023

A large fragment of a turtle carapace peripheral (rim section) recovered 8/6/23 from the uppermost Coffee Sand Formation in Sardis,Tennessee. Possibly having an identification with Bothremys or Peritresius. As far as I'm aware, the lines on the outer surface displayed on one side represent grooves where blood vessels once were.

Late Cretaceous/Middle(?) Campanian.

08/15/2023

The Tennessee State Fossil (Tennessiella.thoracica) eroding from a horizon in the C**n Creek Formation.
Late Cretaceous/Latest Campanian.

08/15/2023

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=808318067749764&id=100057147351881&mibextid=Nif5oz

The College welcomes Mr. Josh Ratliff, as a new full-time lecturer at The University of Tennessee at Martin C**n Creek Science Center through The University of Tennessee - Martin McNairy County Center/Selmer. Josh is a UT Martin Alumni in Geosciences, has a Masters in Paleontology from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and has been an adjunct faculty member for the UTM Selmer Center. He and his family live on the C**n Creek Campus.

08/13/2023

An Inoceramus species bivalve mold from the Sardis Formation.
Late Cretaceous/Middle Campanian.
Sardis, Tennessee.

08/12/2023

An important Trachyscaphites ammonite fragment recovered for biostratigraphic correlation.

The genus is extremely rare in the Mississippi Embayment of the Gulf Coastal Plain. In fact, we only know of a few localities in Alabama, and one in Mississippi for the entire Eastern Gulf Coastal Plain.(!) The Trachyscaphites specimens uploaded in this album will be the first records of the genus from the state of Tennessee.

Based on the following features, it's believed at this time that this is a Trachyscaphites.redbirdensis fragment. It appears to display 5 rows of nodes on each flank, and pronounced ribbing throughout. (The umbilical node row being very small and easy to miss.)

Late Cretaceous/Middle Campanian.
Sardis, Tennessee.

08/10/2023

NOTICE TO ALL.
From this day forward we will no longer refer to the Tennessee State Fossil as Pterotrigonia.thoracica.

We will now refer to the state fossil by its accepted name: Tennessiella.thoracica. The reasoning is simple, straightforward, and to the point: In 2015, a paper was published revising the nomenclature of P.thoracica in which it was raised to a genus level with the species becoming the genus type.
We show here that revised nomenclature has been accepted by many databases, such as marinespecies.org/molluscabase.org/mindat.org/gbif.org/eElurikkus, and the list goes on from there.

It has been 8 years this past month since the paper was published, and there hasn't been a single instance in which the revised nomenclature has been formally challenged with supporting evidence(!), in effect, the entire world has accepted the classification but Tennessee, who otherwise ignore the classification or pretend the paper doesn't exist.

I can only imagine how the author (Michael R. Cooper) feels about this circumstance, since he was gracious enough to name the newly erected genus on behalf of Tennessee.

It is shown here that from this day forward 'Cretaceous Research In Tennessee' accepts the work of Cooper/2015, and will henceforward acknowledge it as valid.

This is a blemish on the character of this great State, and an embarrassment to its people, we will be a part of it no longer, even if everyone else continues to passively deny the revision.

08/09/2023

Exogyra.spinifera
Though it hasn't been documented in literature, these photos prove for a fact that E.spinifera does occur in the Cretaceous deposits of Tennessee, more specifically, the C**n Creek Formation.

The following specimens shown display the typical morphological features of E.spinifera and are diagnostic for the species= the presence of many spinous outgrowths which occur at the intersection of growth lamellae and costae.

This species is ancestral of Exogyra.costata and is frequently misidentified as such..particularly in Tennessee where it isn't currently recognized by most researchers studying the Tennessee deposits. One paleontologist did first propose to us through personal communication that the species does exist here, and doubtless, he is correct in our opinion.

The specimens pictured in this post have provenance in the C**n Creek Formation, as noted above, and were collected from exposures in McNairy County.
Late Cretaceous/Latest Campanian

08/08/2023

Exogyra.ponderosa. This type is by far the most uncommon of the various species represented in Tennessee deposits. There is actually only one locality we know of currently in which the type can be recovered. (They are more plentiful in other states of the Gulf Coastal Plain.)
A few of these were recovered still in place upside down from living position, with both valves attached...seemingly hinting at prevailing environmental conditions during the deposition of the horizon the specimens come from. From the middle beds of the Sardis Formation.

Late Cretaceous/Middle Campanian.
Sardis,Tennessee in Henderson County.

08/07/2023

An amazing specimen of a Trachyscaphites sp. ammonite was recovered yesterday (8/6/23) from the middle beds of the Sardis Formation. This specimen may not be fully complete, but let's hope for the best. It's an important fossil for biostratigraphic dating.

Late Cretaceous/Middle Campanian.
Sardis, Tennessee

08/07/2023

(Edit after identification in comments: First record of the genus Pholadomya from the Sardis Formation!)

I can honestly say I've never saw a bivalve like this. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Half of the specimen was already missing before it was discovered, this is all that remains. I found it in place and upside down from living position, strangely.

Middle beds of the Sardis Formation.
Late Cretaceous/Middle Campanian.
Sardis, Tennessee.

08/05/2023

This is the first complete ammonite to be recovered from the upper Coffee Sand Formation in March of 2020. All of the ammonites posted in this album have provenance in the same horizon, and are the oldest stratigraphically dated Cretaceous ammonites to be recovered in Tennessee so far.
This large specimen doesn't appear to show any noticeable ornamentation, but has been tentatively assigned a Placentaceras.placenta identity until being inspected by others more knowledgeable in ammonites.
We dearly hope to recover more material from this deposit and establish a solid date for it.

Coffee Sand Formation.
Late Cretaceous/ Middle (?) Campanian.
Sardis, Tennessee in Henderson County.