"Tertiary dinosaurs" are reworked Cretaceous eggshells

[Jeff Hecht <jeff@jeffhecht.com>]

A paper is now out; I haven't seen it, but did see the abstract on 
another list. There's also a BBC report at 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3458651.stm which gives more 
details. -- Jeff Hecht

The Journal of Geology, 2004, volume 112, p. 111-118
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JG/journal/issues/v112n1/112107/brief/112107.abstract.html

"Tertiary Dinosaurs" in the Nanxiong Basin, Southern China, Are 
Reworked from the Cretaceous

Brenda J. Buck, Andrew D. Hanson,1 Richard A. Hengst,2 and Hu Shu-sheng3
Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 
89154-4010, U.S.A.
(e-mail: buckb@unlv.nevada.edu)

Manuscript received November 27, 2002; accepted May 29, 2003.

ABSTRACT
The Nanxiong and Shanghu Formations of southeastern China span the KT 
boundary interval and preserve an important paleontological record. A 
1285-m section across the KT boundary was measured, and lithological 
units were documented and sampled. Strata were deposited in  alluvial 
fan/playa mudflat environments in a highly seasonal, semiarid 
climate. Previous workers placed the KT boundary at the 
Nanxiong/Shanghu formational contact. The uppermost Nanxiong and 
lowermost Shanghu Formations contain an assemblage of dinosaur egg 
fragments and Tertiary fossils, which led to the notion that 
dinosaurs survived into the Paleocene. On
the basis of our results, we argue that the mixed KT assemblage is a 
result of debris  flows reworking Cretaceous fossils. Depositional 
environments and paleoclimate did not change significantly across the 
KT boundary.

1 E-mail: andrew.hanson@ccmail.nevada.edu.
2 Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University North Central, 
Westville, Indiana 46391, U.S.A.
3 Beijing Natural History Museum, 126 Tian Qiao South Street, Beijing 
100050, China.

© 2004 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.