Accretionary Forearc Continental Igneous

wedge basin shelf arc

Franciscan Great Valley Great Valley
mélange ophiolite turbidites

Deep-sea fan

Sierra Nevada plutons

Moho
A

Su
bd
uct
ed
p lat
e

FIGURE 16-33 The Pacific margin of northern California in Late Jurassic

time. A. The Franciscan mélange formed an accretionary wedge along the
marginal subduction zone. The Great Valley ophiolite was a zone of seafloor
that was squeezed up along the eastern margin of the accretionary wedge,
and the Great Valley turbidites formed along the continental margin. Today
the Great Valley ophiolite and turbidites still occupy a low region, the Central
Valley of California. West of the Central Valley, portions of the Franciscan
mélange have been elevated as part of the Coast Ranges. B. Turbidites that
now lie along the western margin of the Sacramento Valley in California, where
they have been tilted to a high angle by tectonic activity. (A after R. K. Suchecki,
B J. Sediment. Petrol. 54:170–191, 1984; B, Marli Miller.)

sediments were deformed and metamorphosed along the
subduction zone at high pressures and relatively low tem-
peratures; they represent a mélange (see Figure 8-23).
When the continental margin eventually collided with
the accretionary wedge, the Franciscan rocks were piled
up against the continent, along with the Great Valley
sequence of deep-sea turbidites, which accumulated in
the forearc basin (see Figure 16-33). This Late Jurassic
event coincided approximately with folding and thrust-
ing farther east. These tectonic events of Jurassic age are
collectively known as the Nevadan orogeny. Orogenic
activity related to the Nevadan orogeny continued well
into the Cretaceous Period, although the label “Nevadan
orogeny” is usually employed only for the Jurassic interval
of mountain building.
Farther north, from northern Washington State to
southern Alaska, a large exotic terrane collided with the
margin of North America, resulting in substantial west-
ward accretion. This exotic terrane was actually a com-
posite block, formed of several smaller terranes (see
Figure 16-31). The presence of diverse suites of Paleo-
zoic rocks and fossils in these small terranes indicates
that they were once separate entities. They do, however,
share rock units of Triassic age, an indication that they
were a single unit during the Triassic Period. The entire
composite terrane was then accreted to North America
late in Jurassic time, along the subduction zone that bor-
dered the continent.
Deposition in a foreland basin To the south, in the west-
ern United States, the eastward thrusting and folding of
Late Jurassic time greatly altered patterns of deposition
as far east as Colorado and Wyoming. The Sundance Sea
spread over a broad foreland basin east of the belt of fold-
ing and thrusting (see Figure 16-30). This was the most
extensive marine incursion since late Paleozoic time.
In latest Jurassic time, however, the folding and thrust
faulting that extended over Nevada, Utah, and Idaho pro-
duced a large mountain chain.
The shedding of large volumes of clastics eastward
from these mountains eventually drove back the waters
of the Sundance Sea, leaving only a small inland sea to
the north (Figure 16-34). What remained in Colorado,
Wyoming, and adjacent regions was a nonmarine fore-
land basin in which molasse deposits accumulated. Ap-
parently, on the gentle profile of the foreland basin, even
the lowest depositional environments were above sea
level, because there was no initial deposition of marine
flysch. The molasse of the foreland basin was deposited in
rivers, lakes, and swamps, creating the famous Morrison

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 LATEST
JURASSIC
(TITHONIAN)

Igneous Sundance Sea

arc

Folding Morrison
and
thrusting
Formation

Franciscan
mélange

Newly forming
Gulf of Mexico

FIGURE 16-34 Geologic features of western North America

during latest Jurassic (Tithonian) time. A fold-and-thrust
belt now extended for hundreds of kilometers roughly parallel
to the coastline, but far inland. Tectonic activity had driven the
Sundance Sea from the western interior, leaving a nonmarine
basin where the nonmarine Morrison Formation accumulated.

Formation, which has yielded the world’s most spectacu-
lar dinosaur faunas (Figure 16-35; see also Figures 16-17
and 16-18). Some of the Morrison dinosaur skeletons are
partly intact, and the remains of as many as 50 or 60 in-
dividuals may occur within a small area. These patterns
of preservation suggest that the Morrison dinosaurs were
buried during floods.
The Morrison Formation consists of sandstones and
multicolored mudstones deposited over an area of about
1 million square kilometers. Caliche soil deposits indicate
that the climate was seasonally dry during at least part
of the Morrison depositional interval, while the scarcity
of crocodiles, turtles, and fishes in lake deposits of the
Morrison suggests that many lakes of the region were sa-
line. Dinosaurs are found in deposits representing all of
the Morrison environments—rivers, lakes, and swamps.
This broad environmental distribution suggests that none
of the species, not even the huge sauropods (see Figure
16-17), were adapted specifically for a life of wading in
large bodies of water. The Morrison Formation spans the
last 10 million years or so of the Jurassic Period and is
overlain by the nonmarine Cloverly Formation of Early
Cretaceous age, which contains a completely different
fauna of dinosaurs, apparently because of major extinc-
tions at the end of the Jurassic Period.
FIGURE 16-35 Excavation of dinosaur fossils in the Morrison
Formation. These partly intact skeletons remain embedded in
the rock at Dinosaur National Monument, Utah. (James L. Amos/
Science Source.)
CHAPTER SUMMARY
What groups of animals were conspicuous in Triassic and
Jurassic seas, and what groups that had been prominent
in late Paleozoic time were absent?
Important groups of marine life during the early Me-
sozoic included bivalve, gastropod, and ammonoid mol-
lusks, brachiopods, sea urchins, hexacorals, bony fishes,
sharks, and swimming reptiles. Conspicuously absent
were tabulate and rugose corals, trilobites, and fusulinid
foraminifera.
What reptile groups were important carnivores in Trias-
sic and Jurassic seas?
Placoderms crushed shells to feed on marine inverte-
brates early in Triassic time, and nothosaurs fed on fish
near the shore. Later to evolve were ocean-going preda-
tors: ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and marine crocodiles.

Chapter Summary 419

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 What kinds of plants played major roles on land in early
Mesozoic time?
Ferns were abundant during the Triassic Period, but
gymnosperm plants dominated Jurassic landscapes.
Why did dinosaurs replace therapsids as the dominant
vertebrate animals on land?
Nearly all therapsid species died out in the terminal Trias-
sic mass extinction. A larger percentage of dinosaur spe-
cies survived, and thus the dinosaurs assumed numerical
dominance during the Jurassic Period.
What groups of vertebrate animals evolved the ability to
fly during early Mesozoic time?
Flying reptiles evolved near the end of the Triassic Pe-
riod. Feathered dinosaurs also arose in the Triassic. Ini-
tially, the feathers served as insulation. Later they assisted
small dinosaurs in gliding through the air but they could
not fly.
What major mass extinctions occurred during early Me-
sozoic time and what was their likely cause?
Three mass extinctions occurred in rapid succession dur-
ing the Early Triassic, and one of the most severe mass
extinctions of all time marked the end of the Triassic.
All of these crises were associated with global warming
events, which were probably major causes of the extinc-
tions. Massive volcanism associated with the breakup of
Pangaea appears to have caused greenhouse warming at
the end of the Triassic through release of carbon dioxide.
What was the configuration of Earth’s landmasses near
the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, and how did this
configuration change early in the era?
Nearly all of Earth’s continental crust was consolidated
into the supercontinent Pangaea at the start of the Me-
sozoic Era. Even at the end of the Jurassic Period, all
the continents remained close together. Evaporites mark
zones where Pangaea began to rift apart early in the Me-
sozoic Era.
Why did large bodies of nonmarine sediment accumu-
late in eastern North America during early Mesozoic
time?
Fault block basins formed during the rifting episode that
eventually formed the Atlantic Ocean between North
America and Africa, and these basins received thick de-
posits of sediment.
How did North America expand rapidly westward during
early Mesozoic time?
During Jurassic time, a large composite terrane was added
to the western margin of the continent from south of the
Canadian border to Alaska. To the south, Sonomia was at-
tached to the continental margin early in the Triassic, with
the Golconda accretionary wedge squeezed in between.
During Jurassic time, the Franciscan group of deep-water
420 CHAPTER 16 The Early Mesozoic Era
Stanley 4e_ch16_389-420hr.indd 420
sediments and volcanics was accreted along a subduction
zone; they now constitute a large part of California.
What evidence is there for the existence of a foreland
basin during Jurassic time in western North America?
The Sundance Sea formed inland from mountains that
rose up during the Nevadan orogeny in western North
America during the Jurassic Period, but marine waters
were eventually expelled by the influx of sediments. Di-
nosaur fossils are abundantly preserved in the molasse
sediments that were then deposited in the vicinity of
Utah and western Colorado.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What important groups of Paleozoic marine animals
were absent from Triassic seas?
2. Why should we not be surprised that stromatolites
spread over Early Triassic seafloors?
3. What two kinds of flying vertebrates evolved during
early Mesozoic time?
4. How did reefs formed by hexacorals during the Juras-
sic Period differ from those formed during Triassic time?
5. What accounts for the dinosaurs’ rise to dominance
at the start of the Jurassic Period?
6. What evidence is there that dinosaurs brooded their
eggs and tended their young long after they hatched?
7. What evidence is there that dinosaurs were endo-
thermic animals?
8. What may be the largest province of continental
volcanic rocks ever to form came into being early in the
Mesozoic Era. Where and why did it form?
9. What was the geographic setting in which the most
spectacular known assemblage of Jurassic dinosaurs was
preserved?
10. In what areas is there evidence that new ocean ba-
sins started to form in Triassic and Jurassic time? What
is the evidence?
11. By what mechanisms did western North America
expand westward during early Mesozoic time?
12. Vertebrate life underwent spectacular evolutionary
changes early in the Mesozoic Era. Using the Visual
Overview on pages 390–391 and what you have learned
in this chapter, review the ways in which vertebrate
animals expanded their ecological role in the ocean,
on land, and in the air during the Triassic and Jurassic
periods.
2/26/14 10:40 AM
 The Cretaceous World

Chalk deposits stand above

the coastline of southeastern
England, where they form the
famous White Cliffs of Dover.
Chalk, a soft, powdery rock, is
unusually abundant in the Upper
Cretaceous Series in many areas.
(Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy.)

421

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 VISUAL OVERVIEW
Major Events of the Cretaceous
MASS EXTINCTION
No survivors Some survivors Total extinction
66

Giant Flowering
swimming plants radiate
Coccolithophores,
reptiles
Ammonoids planktonic
forminifera
Rudists Other
(reefs mollusks
decline
earlier)
Dinosaurs Gymnosperms
Late

continue
Coccolithophores to dominate
landscapes

Foraminifera

Coccolithophores
Teleost
fishes Crabs
Rudists begin
to displace
reef corals Snails
Diatoms
100
Time (million years ago)

CRETACEOUS

Marine predators
diversify
Early

145

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