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Geology; January 1998; v. 26; no. 1; p. 27-30; DOI: 10.1130/0091-7613(1998)026<0027:LADIAL>2.3.CO;2
© 1998 Geological Society of America
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Life and death in a Late Cretaceous dune field, Nemegt basin, Mongolia

David B. Loope1, Lowell Dingus2, Carl C. Swisher, III3 and Chuluun Minjin4

1 Department of Geosciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0340
2 Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York 10024-5192
3 Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, California 94709
4 Department of Geology and Mineralogy, P.O. Box 46/225, Mongolian Technical University, Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia

For more than 70 years, red sandstones of the Gobi Desert have yielded abundant articulated skeletons of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs, lizards, and mammals. At Ukhaa Tolgod, structureless sandstones are the only fossiliferous facies, and we present new evidence for deposition on dune-sand–sourced alluvial fans that were built at the margins of stabilized eolian bedforms during mesic climatic episodes. In laterally and vertically adjacent large-scale eolian cross-strata in which skeletons are absent, we have found abundant tracks of dinosaurs that walked on sparsely vegetated dunes that were active under xeric conditions. Our study of calcareous concretions in vaguely bedded eolian sandstones suggests that bedding was nearly destroyed by burrowing invertebrates and trampling dinosaurs. The accumulation of illuvial clays and pedogenic calcite in these sediments reduced infiltration of rainwater and, with attendant climatic change and heavy rainfall events, led to fan development.




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