Magnetostratigraphic correlation of Late Cretaceous and Early Paleogene vertebrate-bearing deposits, Nemegt Basin, Mongolia

University Of Rhode Island, Kingston RI

Investigators

Abstract

9980397 Fastovsky Over 70 years ago, rich dinosaur faunas were discovered in Mongolia. These were the first dinosaurs for which eggs and nest were found. Since then, our understanding of dinosaur behavior and habitats has been greatly increased as a result of the past 70 years of works in Mongolia by Polish, Russian, Japanese, and North American research teams. The age of the Mongolian dinosaurs, however, has remained uncertain. The rocks necessary for radiometric ages dates are not present in the dinosaur-bearing sediments, so age dates have proven impossible to obtain. Originally these dinosaurs were thought to be ancestral to Campanian and Maastrichtian (ca. 83-65 million year old) North American forms; later it was suggested that perhaps the Mongolian dinosaurs were closer in time to the North American dinosaurs. This project will perform paleomagnetic analysis on rock samples in order to place the dinosaur fauna of Mongolia into a higher resolution chronostratigraphic framework. PI's best estimate at present place the Mongolian dinosaur faunas as Campanian in age (ca. 80 million years old).