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Paleopedology And taphonomy Of The Brian Maebius Site, Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Factor, Lewis Allen
Factor, Lewis Allen
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Thesis/Dissertation
Date
2002
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Earth and Environmental Science
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http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/8636
Abstract
The Brian Maebius Site in Badlands National Park, S.D. is located in the lower/middle Scenic Member of the Oligocene Brule Formation of the White River Group. The Site is a collection of fluvially reworked volcaniclastic and epiclastic sediments of mudstones, channel sandstones, siltstones, and vertebrate fossils. Macroscopic, microscopic, and geochemical data that I collected at Brian Maebius suggests that paleosols are prevalent and consist predominantly of weakly developed Haplustalfs, Haplustepts, and one pervasive, strongly developed Paleudalf, which is informally referred to as the Hay Butte Marker Bed. Data also indicates that these paleosols represent sub-humid to semi-arid and semi-forested to savanna paleoenvironments within a meandering to anastomosing floodplain setting. Taphonomic data indicates that the Brian Maebius Site contains weakly to moderately weathered, disarticulated, fluvially abraded, carnivore processed, and mostly randomly oriented vertebrate fossils that are adjacent and laterally traceable to the Haplustalfs and Haplustepts. These taphonomic indicators suggest that attritional accumulation and/or predators proximal to an oxbow setting and active stream channel were responsible for bone accumulation, and that periodic flooding events transported and buried faunal remains. This research is part of a program sponsored by the National Park Service to document and protect fossil resources within Badlands National Park. Detailed analyses of sedimentology, paleopedology, stratigraphic position, and geographic distribution of fossil sites will help to interpret the effect of basin dynamics on bone bed genesis, generate models to predict new sites, and help protect bones from poaching.
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