Big Multi Quarry
Basic information
Sample name: Big Multi Quarry

Sample aka: UCMP loc. V76134; CM loc. 2433

Reference: P. Wilf, K. C. Beard, K. Sian Davies-Vollum, and J. W. Norejko. 1998. Portrait of a late Paleocene (early Clarkforkian) terrestrial ecosystem: Big Multi Quarry and associated strata, Washakie Basin, southwestern Wyoming. Palaios 13(6):514-532 [ER 4110]
Geography
Country: United States

State: Wyoming


County: Sweetwater


Coordinate: 41.55° N, -108.56° W
Coordinate basis: based on nearby landmark

Scale: quarry

Formation: Fort U.nion

Time interval: Late Palaeocene

Zone: Clarkforkian

Ma: 56.8

Age basis: AEO

Geography comments: "near the settlement of Bitter Creek... in the northwestern Washakie Basin" (no further details are given: coordinate is based on Bitter Creek)
"in the uppermost part of of the Fort U.nion Formation", with the Wasatch contact being "approximately 80 m above... The vertebrate-bearing horizon is laterally continuous and traceable for at least 100 m"

Environment
Lithology: mudstone

Taphonomic context: overbank deposit,paleosol

Habitat comments: "in a 0.5-m-thick, purple-gray, blocky mudstone": the lithology implies "a low-energy depositional environment" that is within a floodplain, and the colour implies "wet, oxygenated paleosols"

Methods
Life forms: carnivores,primates,rodents,ungulates,other large mammals,other small mammals

Sampling methods: quarry,screenwash

Sample size: 1672 specimens

Years: 1976, 1992 - 1997

Museum: UCMP, Carnegie Museum

Sampling comments: "discovered in 1976 by a field party from the University of California Museum of Paleontology... under the direction of Dr. Donald E. Savage... In 1992, field parties from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CM) resumed work at Big Multi Quarry, which has now been excavated intensively for six consecutive field seasons"
"The most complete specimens were invariably collected by small-scale quarrying" but "virtually all fossiliferous rock was screen-washed subsequent to initial quarrying. Some specimens were also obtained by surface-prospecting"
an earlier and much less complete faunal list was published by Rose (1981)

Metadata
Sample number: 4538

Contributor: John Alroy

Enterer: John Alroy

Modifier no: John Alroy

Created: 2024-12-02 10:08:54

Modified: 2024-12-02 10:09:44

Abundance distribution
41 species
2 singletons
total count 1672
geometric series index: 49.5
Fisher's α: 7.594
geometric series k: 0.8644
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.9183
Shannon's H: 2.9283
Good's u: 0.9988
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts.
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