The Beartooth Butte Formation is a geologic formation in Wyoming. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian period.Beartooth Butte Formation at Fossilworks.org
Description The formation contains a basal limestone conglomerate overlain by evenly bedded red or gray limestones (more accurately, limy mudstones) and calcareous shales. It is a lenticular, channel-fill deposit which is some wide and thick at maximum. Most collections are from the talus slope. Stable oxygen and isotope data (Poulson in Fiorillo, 2000) indicate that the Beartooth Butte Formation was deposited in an estuarine environment, with the Cottonwood Canyon section being slightly less saline than the type section.
Fossil content The following fossils have been reported from the formation:
Fish
Allocryptaspis ellipticus A. flabelliformis Anarthraspis chamberlini A. montanus Bryantolepis brachycephalus B. cristatus Bryantolepis major B. obscurus Bulbocanthus rugosus Cardipeltis bryanti C. richardoni Cosmaspis transversa Lampraspis tuberculata Machaeracanthus minor Onchus penetrans O. peracutus Protaspis brevispina P. mcgrewi Uranolophus wyomingensis Aethaspis sp. Cephalaspis sp. Simblaspis sp.
Arthropods Acanthoscorpio mucronatus Branchioscorpio richardsoni Hydroscorpius denisoni Praearcturus sp.
Flora Psilophyton wyomingense Drepanophycus devonicus Euphyllophytina sp. Gosslingia sp.
Invertebrates Brachiopoda indet.
See also List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Wyoming Paleontology in Wyoming
References
Bibliography