Dr. Stephen M. Gatesy, Assistant Professor
Jenkins, F.A. Jr., Shubin, N.H., Amaral, W.W., Gatesy, S.M., Schaff, C.R., Clemmensen, L.B., downs, W.R., Davidson, A.R., Bonde, N., and Osbaeck, F. 1994.Late Triassic continental vertebrates and depositional environments of the Fleming Fjord Formation, Jameson Land, East Greenland. Meddelelser om Gronland, Geoscience 32: 1-25.
A diverse assemblage of fossil vertebrates has been discovered in the Fleming Fjord Formation (Malmros Klint and Orsted Dal Members) in East Greenland between latitudes 71o15; N and 71o 50'N. The fauna includes several species of mammals as well as prosauropod (Plateosaurus) and theropod dinosaurs, turtles 9cf. Proganochelys), pterosaurs, aeotosaurs (Aetosaurus ferratus, Paratypothorax andressi), labyrinthodont amphibians (Gerrothorax, Cyclotosauruss and [possibly other taxa) and fishes (including sharks, actinopterygians, coelocanths and lungfish). The association of the genera Aetosaurus, Plateosaurus, Proganochelys, Cyclotosaurus and Gerrothorax is shared with well known European Norian faunas, and confirms the paleogeographic proximity of Greenland and Europe Norian faunas, and confirms the paleogeographic proximity of Greenland and Europe during Late Triassic time. On this evidence, the Orsted Dal Member may be estimated to be at least as old as mid-norian, but a comparable age estimate for the underlying malmros Klint Member cannot be made on the basis of the fauna as presently known.
The Malmros Klint Member is characterized by composite cyclicity with four orders of cycles involving silt-rich, ephemeral lack or playa-mudflat systems, loess beds, wave-reworked sand flats, flat pebble conglomerates and paleosols. The rhythmicity and thickness rations of these beds are evidence that depositional conditions were controlled by Milankovitch cycles, with climatic conditions varying from humid, to dry with seasonal rainfall, to arid. Cyclical sedimentary deposition of the overlying Orsted Dal Member.
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