home   Printer friendly version Add to site
Advanced search
Time & Space Fossil Gallery Famous Flora & Fauna
Careers Resources K-12 Collections PaleoPeople

The Cretaceous in Wyoming, US

Cretaceous in Wyoming map

undifferentiated rock units help

Choose a time period:

Quaternary
Tertiary
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Carboniferous
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Precambrian

Cretaceous Fossils

No slide show is available for the Cretaceous in Wyoming.

Search the fossil gallery

Paleontology and geology

Cretaceous rocks are well exposed in many parts of Wyoming, particularly around the edges of the Bighorn Basin and the Black Hills in the northern and northeastern parts of the state, respectively, as well as in the vicinity of Casper in the southeastern part of the state. During the Cretaceous, the Western Interior Seaway developed from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, spreading over much of the state. Numerous episodes of transgression and regression of this seaway resulted in the deposition of thousands of feet of sedimentary rock, both marine and non-marine. A series of mountain-building episodes (the Laramide Orogeny) to the west and northwest deposited sediments in rivers and streams flowing eastward into the Seaway. These mountain-building events began in the Late Cretaceous and continued into the Tertiary, beginning the formation of the Bighorn, Powder River, and Wind River basins and adjacent mountains. Cretaceous rocks in Wyoming are noted for a wide variety of vertebrate fossils including fish, frogs, salamanders, turtles, crocodiles, pterosaurs, mammals, birds, and, of course, dinosaurs. Bones of Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Troodon, Edmontosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Edmontonia, Dromaeosaurus, and Ornithomimus have all been recovered in the state.

Links to more on the Cretaceous in Wyoming

Education and Exhibits | Resources

Education and Exhibits

Virtual Exhibits (showing 1 of 1 listings)

Paleo Video: A modern day dinosaur extinction: This video features Mark Goodwin and Jack Horner's research on pachycephalosaurs. They argue that there were fewer pachycephalosaur species in the Hell Creek Formation than we thought - two species, Dracorex hogwartsia and Stygimoloch spinifer, are actually juveniles and teenagers of the species Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis.

top Top of List

Resources

Field Guides (showing 1 of 1 listings)

Bliss Dinosaur Ranch: This site showcases a large number of Cretaceous fossils (Hell Creek Formation) on a private ranch on the Montana-Wyoming border. The bones of Triceratops and pachycephalosaurs have been found, as well as numerous mammal teeth.

top Top of List


Montana State Map
South Dakota State Map
Nebraska State Map
Colorado State Map
Utah State Map
Idaho State Map