The Qigu Formation is a

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the ...

( Oxfordian) geologic

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondary ...

in the Southern Junggar Basin in China. Indeterminate

Dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, including theropod teeth and a fibula. a

stegosaur Stegosauria is a group of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. Stegosaurian fossils have been found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, predominantly in what is now North America, Euro ...

dorsal vertebra and a Eusauropod tooth. '' Xinjiangtitan'' was erroneously thought to be from this formation, but it is actually from the older Qiketai Formation, which is in a different basin.Weishampel, et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution." Pp. 517-607. The term "Qigu Formation" is also used to sediments of equivalent age in the

Turpan Basin The Turpan Depression or Turfan Depression, is a fault-bounded trough located around and south of the city-oasis of Turpan, in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in far Western China, about southeast of the regional capital Ürümqi. It includ ...

, but this might better be treated as a separate formation. It is laterally equivalent to the

Shishugou Formation The Shishugou Formation () is a geological formation in Xinjiang, China. Its strata date back to the Late Jurassic period. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Di ...

Fossil content

The mass accumulation of

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

freshwater

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked ...

fossils belonging to the genus '' Annemys'', discovered in 2009 at a site nicknamed "

Mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...

Chelonia" in

Shanshan County Shanshan County () as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Uyghur as Piqan County (; ), is a county within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administrative jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Turpan ...

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

is thought to likely belong to the Qigu Formation, though it belongs to the strata of the Turpan Basin. Remains of indeterminate dinosaurs, including ankylosaurs, metriacanthosaurids, and dromaeosaurids are known from the formation. The remains of indeterminate rhamphorhynchid

pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the Order (biology), order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cre ...

s have been recovered from the formation. Among others, the following fossils have been found in the formation:Qigu Formation
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cre ...

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References

Bibliography

* {{cite book , editor-last=Weishampel , editor-first=David B. , editor-link=David B. Weishampel , editor-last2=Dodson , editor-first2=Peter , editor-link2=Peter Dodson , editor-last3=Osmólska , editor-first3=Halszka , editor-link3=Halszka Osmólska , date=2004 , title=The Dinosauria , edition=2nd , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtZFDb_iw40C , location=Berkeley , publisher=University of California Press , access-date=2019-02-21 , isbn=0-520-24209-2 Geologic formations of China Jurassic System of Asia Oxfordian Stage Jurassic China Siltstone formations Sandstone formations Alluvial deposits Fluvial deposits Lacustrine deposits Paleontology in Xinjiang Formations

Fossil content

See also

References

Bibliography