Moreno Hill Formation
# Moreno Hill Formation

The Moreno Hill Formation is a geological formation in western New Mexico whose strata were deposited in the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.

## Description

The formation is a nonmarine coal-bearing formation composed mostly of sandstone and shale with minor siltstone. The shales are brownish gray in color, and the sandstones are discontinuous beds of very pale orange to light brown poorly sorted grains that usually show steep crossbedding. The sandstones are interpreted as channel or splay deposits in a fluvial environment. The shales include thin lenses of bituminous coal, including tonsteins (distinctive thin ash beds). The total maximum thickness is 217 meters (712 ft). It overlies the Atarque Sandstone and is in turn overlain by the Fence Lake Formation.

The formation is laterally equivalent to the Tres Hermanos Formation, Pescado Tongue of the Mancos Shale, Gallup Sandstone, and lower Crevasse Canyon Formation. It represents beds southwest of the pinchout of the Pescado Tongue where the Tres Hermanos Formation and Gallup Sandstone are no longer lithologically distinguishable.

## Vertebrate paleofauna

The Moreno Hill Formation was originally thought to be devoid of fossils, but it has since yielded a diverse vertebrate paleofauna.

### Fish

Fish of the Moreno Hill Formation :

| Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Melvius | M. sp. | | | An Amiid or basal ray-finned fish | |

### Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs of the Moreno Hill Formation :

| Genus | Species | Material | Description |
| - | - | - | - |
| Ankylosauria indet. | Indeterminate | Teeth (specimens MSM P15742 and MSM P15743). | Ankylosaur teeth. |
| Jeyawati | J. rugoculus | | A basal hadrosauromorph. |
| Nothronychus | N. mckinleyi | "Teeth, fragmentary skull bones, cervical and other vertebrae, scapula, partial forelimb and hindlimb." | A therizinosaur. |
| Suskityrannus | S. hazelae | Partial skull & skeleton. | A tyrannosauroid. |
| Zuniceratops | Z. christopheri | "Partial cranial and postcranial materials of five individuals." | A ceratopsian. |

### Testudines

Testudines of the Moreno Hill Formation :

| Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Edowa | E. zuniensis | | | A baenid. | |
| Naomichelys | | | | A helochelydrid. | |

## History of investigation

The formation was first named by McLellan and coinvestigators in 1983 for exposures around Moreno Hill in the Salt Lake coal field of western New Mexico. The beds were originally mapped as Mesaverde Group, but were found to be much lower in the stratigraphic column.

