Winton Formation

The Winton Formation is a Cretaceous formation in central-western Queensland, Australia. It is late Albian to early Turonian in age,[2] so straddles the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary.

Winton Formation Stratigraphic range: Late Albian-Early Turonian ~104–92 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Type	Geological formation
Unit of	Rolling Downs Group
Underlies	Unconformity with Quaternary Lake Eyre Basin sediments
Overlies	Mackunda Formation,[1] Oodndatta Formation
Thickness	<100 m (330 ft) at the margin 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in the centre
Lithology
Primary	Sandstone, siltstone, claystone
Other	Conglomerate, coal
Location
Coordinates	22.3°S 143.1°E
Approximate paleocoordinates	51.8°S 134.1°E
Region	Queensland
Country	Australia
Extent	Eromanga Basin
Type section
Named for	Winton, Queensland
Named by	Whitehouse
Location	Bores in and around Winton
Year defined	1955
Formation distribution within Australia

The formation is a rock unit that blankets large areas of central-western Queensland. It consists of sedimentary rocks such as sandstone, siltstone and claystone. The sediments that make up these rocks represent the remnants of the river plains that filled the basin left by the Eromanga Sea - an inland sea that covered large parts of Queensland and central Australia at least four times during the Early Cretaceous. Great meandering rivers, forest pools and swamps, creeks, lakes and coastal estuaries all left behind different types of sediment.

In some areas, the Winton Formation is over 400 metres thick. To bring with them such a huge amount of sediment, the rivers that flowed across these plains must have been comparable in size to the present-day Amazon or Mississippi rivers. As more and more sediment was brought in, the margins of the inland sea slowly contracted. By around 95 million years ago, the deposition was complete and the inland sea would never be seen again.

By virtue of its age and the environmental conditions under which the rocks it consists of were deposited, the Winton Formation represents one of the richest sources of dinosaur fossils anywhere in Australia.

Fossil content

A fossil footprint-(ichnite), Wintonopus, found with two other dinosaur genera footprints at the Lark Quarry in Australia, c.f. Tyrannosauropus and Skartopus, have been found in the Winton Formation.

Crocodyliformes

Crocodyliformes of the Winton Formation
Taxa	Species	Presence	Material	Notes	Images
Isisfordia	I. duncani		Nearly complete skeleton and partial skull, referred complete skull

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs of the Winton Formation
Taxa	Species	Presence	Material	Notes	Images
Australovenator [3]	A. wintonensis		Partial skeleton	A lightweight predatory megaraptoran theropod 6 meters (20 ft) long.[4][5][6]
Wintonotitan [3]	W. wattsi[3]		Partial skeleton	A giant herbivorous titanosaurian sauropod.[4]
Diamantinasaurus [3]	D. matildae[3]		Partial skeleton	A giant, stocky herbivorous titanosaurian sauropod about 15–16 metres (49–52 ft) in length.[4]
Austrosaurus[7]	A. mckillopi
Savannasaurus [8]	S. elliotorum[8]		Partial skeleton	A giant herbivorous titanosaurian sauropod about 15 metres (49 ft) in length.[9]
Wintonopus	Indeterminate		Ichnofossils
Ornithopoda	Undescribed		"a nearly complete skull and mandible and at least three partial postcranial skeletons"[10]	Small-bodied, recovered as part of "a diverse clade of Gondwanan ornithopods that includes taxa from Australia, South America, and Antarctica"
Titanosauriformes	Undescribed		Partial skull, consisting of "a braincase, quadrates, quadratojugals, a left squamosal, postorbitals, and several unprepared elements." associated with a hind limb[11]
Neornithischia	Indeteriminate		Tooth[12]
Saurischia[7]	Indeterminate
Sauropoda[7]	Indeterminate		Tracks
Ankylosauria[13]	Indeterminate		Three isolated teeth from left and right dentary and right maxilla

Pterosaurs

Pterosaurs of the Winton Formation
Taxa	Species	Presence	Material	Notes	Images
Ferrodraco[14]	F. lentoni		Anterior portion of a skull and dentary, anterior skull and dentary fragments, partial wing, cervical vertebral centra.	Anhanguerian

See also

• Lark Quarry Conservation Park
• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
• South Polar region of the Cretaceous

References

1. http://www.anra.gov.au/topics/water/availability/qld/gmu-winton-mackunda-formations.html
2. Tucker, Ryan T.; Roberts, Eric M.; Hu, Yi; Kemp, Anthony I.S.; Salisbury, Steven W. (September 2013). "Detrital zircon age constraints for the Winton Formation, Queensland: Contextualizing Australia's Late Cretaceous dinosaur faunas". Gondwana Research. 24 (2): 767–779. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2012.12.009. ISSN 1342-937X.
3. Hocknull, SA; White, MA; Tischler, TR; Cook, AG; Calleja, ND; et al. (2009). "New Mid-Cretaceous (Latest Albian) Dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia". PLOS One. 4 (7): e6190. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006190. PMC 2703565. PMID 19584929.
4. "Scientists Find Dinosaur That Lived 98M Years Ago in Australia". Associated Press. Fox News. 3 July 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2009.
5. "New dinosaurs found in Australia". BBC News. 3 July 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2009.
6. "Triple Fossil Find Puts Australia Back on the Dinosaur Map". Science Daily. 3 July 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2009.
7. Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Cretaceous, Australasia)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 605-606. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
8. Poropat, S.F.; Mannion, P.D.; Upchurch, P.; Hocknull, S.A.; Kear, B.P.; Kundrát, M.; Tischler, T.R.; Sloan, T.; Sinapius, G.H.K.; Elliott, J.A.; Elliott, D.A. (2016). "New Australian sauropods shed light on Cretaceous dinosaur palaeobiogeography". Scientific Reports. 6: 34467. doi:10.1038/srep34467. PMC 5072287. PMID 27763598.
9. Geggel, Laura (2016). "Wide-Hipped Dinosaur the Size of a Bus Once Trod Across Australia". Live Science. Purch.
10. AN EXCEPTIONALLY PRESERVED SMALL-BODIED ORNITHOPOD DINOSAUR FROM THE LOWER CRETACEOUS (UPPER ALBIAN) WINTON FORMATION OF ISISFORD, CENTRAL-WESTERN QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA, AND THE DIVERSIFICATION OF GONDWANAN ORNITHOPODS SALISBURY, Steven W., University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; HERNE, Matthew C., University of New England, Armidale, Australia; LAMANNA, Matthew C., Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America; NAIR, Jay P., University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; SYME, Caitlin, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; WITMER, Lawrence M., Ohio Univ, Athens, OH, United States of America SVP conference abstracts 2019
11. NEW SAUROPOD DINOSAUR DISCOVERIES IN THE LOWER UPPER CRETACEOUS WINTON FORMATION (CENOMANIAN– LOWER TURONIAN) OF QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR TITANOSAURIAN EVOLUTION POROPAT, Stephen F., Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia; MANNION, Philip D., University College London, London, England; UPCHURCH, Paul, University College London, London, United Kingdom; ELLIOTT, David A., Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, Winton, Australia SVP conference abstracts 2019
12. "Hypsilophodontid (Dinosauria:Ornithischia) from latest Albian, Winton Formation, central Queensland". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 52.
13. Leahey, Lucy G.; Salisbury, Steven W. (June 2013). "First evidence of ankylosaurian dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Thyreophora) from the mid-Cretaceous (late Albian–Cenomanian) Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 37 (2): 249–257. doi:10.1080/03115518.2013.743703. ISSN 0311-5518.
14. Pentland, Adele H.; Poropat, Stephen F.; Tischler, Travis R.; Sloan, Trish; Elliott, Robert A.; Elliott, Harry A.; Elliott, Judy A.; Elliott, David A. (December 2019). "Ferrodraco lentoni gen. et sp. nov., a new ornithocheirid pterosaur from the Winton Formation (Cenomanian–lower Turonian) of Queensland, Australia". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 13454. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-49789-4. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6776501. PMID 31582757.