At the Top of the Grand Staircase

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the location of one of the best-known terrestrial records for the late Cretaceous. Prior fieldwork confirmed the richness of the area, but a major effort begun in the new century has documented over 2,000 new vertebrate fossil sites, provided new radiometric dates, and identified five new genera of ceratopsids, two new species of hadrosaur, a probable new genus of hypsilophodontid, new pachycephalosaurs and ankylosaurs, several kinds of theropods (including a new genus of oviraptor and a new tyrannosaur), plus the most complete specimen of a Late Cretaceous therizinosaur ever collected from North America, and much more. The research documented in this book is rewriting our understanding of Late Cretaceous paleobiogeography and dinosaur phyletics. At the Top of the Grand Staircase: The Late Cretaceous of Southern Utah is a major stepping stone toward a total synthesis of the ecology and evolution of the Late Cretaceous ecosystems of western North America.

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the location of one of the best-known terrestrial records for the late Cretaceous. Prior fieldwork confirmed the richness of the area, but a major effort begun in the new century has documented over 2,000 new vertebrate fossil sites, provided new radiometric dates, and identified five new genera of ceratopsids, two new species of hadrosaur, a probable new genus of hypsilophodontid, new pachycephalosaurs and ankylosaurs, several kinds of theropods (including a new genus of oviraptor and a new tyrannosaur), plus the most complete specimen of a Late Cretaceous therizinosaur ever collected from North America, and much more. The research documented in this book is rewriting our understanding of Late Cretaceous paleobiogeography and dinosaur phyletics. At the Top of the Grand Staircase: The Late Cretaceous of Southern Utah is a major stepping stone toward a total synthesis of the ecology and evolution of the Late Cretaceous ecosystems of western North America.

Foreword by Jeffrey G. Eaton
Preface
1. One Hundred Thirty Years of Cretaceous Research in Southern Utah
2. Geologic Overview
3. Accumulation of Organic Carbon–Rich Strata along the Western Margin and in the Center of the North American Western Interior Seaway during the Cenomanian–Turonian Transgression
4. Tectonic and Sedimentary Controls, Age, and Correlation of the Upper Cretaceous Wahweap Formation, Southern Utah
5. Implications of the Internal Plumbing of a Late Cretaceous Sand Volcano: Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Utah
6. The Kaiparowits Formation: A Remarkable Record of Late Cretaceous Terrestrial Environments, Ecosystems, and Evolution in Western North America
7. A Late Campanian Flora from the Kaiparowits Formation, Southern Utah, and a Brief Overview of the Widely Sampled but Little-Known Campanian Vegetation of the Western Interior of North America
8. Continental Invertebrates and Trace Fossils from the Campanian Kaiparowits Formation, Utah
9. Elasmobranchs from Upper Cretaceous Freshwater Facies in Southern Utah
10. Freshwater Osteichthyes from the Cenomanian to Late Campanian of Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Utah
11. Preliminary Report on Salamanders (Lissamphibia; Caudata) from the Late Cretaceous (Late Cenomanian–Late Campanian) of Southern Utah, U.S.A.
12. Anuran Ilia from the Upper Cretaceous of Utah—Diversity and Stratigraphic Patterns
13. Turtles from the Kaiparowits Formation, Utah
14. Review of Late Cretaceous Mammalian Faunas of the Kaiparowits and Paunsaugunt Plateaus, Southwestern Utah
15. Late Cretaceous Mammals from Bryce Canyon National Park and Vicinity, Paunsaugunt Plateau, Southwestern Utah
16. Lizards and Snakes from the Cenomanian through Campanian of Southern Utah: Filling the Gap in the Fossil Record of Squamata from the Late Cretaceous of the Western Interior of North America
17. Crocodyliforms from the Late Cretaceous of Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and Vicinity, Southern Utah, U.S.A.
18. Review of Late Cretaceous Ankylosaurian Dinosaurs from the Grand Staircase Region, Southern Utah
19. Ornithopod Dinosaurs from the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument Region, Utah, and Their Role in Paleobiogeographic and Macroevolutionary Studies
20. Review of Pachycephalosaurian Dinosaurs from Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Southern Utah
21. Ceratopsid Dinosaurs from the Grand Staircase of Southern Utah
22. Late Cretaceous Theropod Dinosaurs of Southern Utah
23. A Trackmaker for Saurexallopus: Ichnological Evidence for Oviraptorosaurian Tracks from the Upper Cretaceous of Western North America
24. First Report of Probable Therizinosaur (cf. Macropodosaurus) Tracks from North America, with Notes on the Neglected Vertebrate Ichnofauna of the Ferron Sandstone (Late Cretaceous) of Central Utah
25. Fossil Vertebrates from the Tropic Shale (Upper Cretaceous), Southern Utah
26. Paleontological Overview and Taphonomy of the Middle Campanian Wahweap Formation in Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument
27. Taphonomy of a Subadult Teratophoneus curriei (Tyrannosauridae) from the Upper Campanian Kaiparowits Formation of Utah
28. A New Macrovertebrate Assemblage from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Southern Utah

Index