San Jose Formation

The San Jose Formation is an Early Eocene (Wasatchian in the NALMA classification) geologic formation in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and Colorado.

Description
The San Jose Formation is mostly sandstone but with some mudstone beds. The formation was deposited by high-energy streams on a muddy floodplain that was the last preserved sedimentation episode in the San Juan Basin. Stream direction was from the northwest, north, and east towards the south.

The basal Cuba Mesa Member is found throughout the depositional basin and is a coarse-grained sheet sandstone. The Regina Member is floodplain mudstone and disconnected sheet sandstone that intertongues with the sandstone-dominated Ditch Canyon Member in the northwestern part of the basin and the Llaves Member on the east side of the basin. The uppermost member is the siltstone-dominated Tapicitos Member. The Cuba Mesa Member was deposited during subsidence in the basin center, while the later members were deposited during episodes of monoclinal folding along the Nacimiento Fault on the west escarpment of the Nacimiento Mountains.

Paleontology
The mudstone beds of the San Jose Formation are locally rich in fossils. These include the Almagre and Largo faunas of the early Eocene.

Fossil content
Among others, the following fossils have been reported from the formation:

Mammals

 * Primates


 * Copelemur tutus
 * Cantius angulatus
 * C. frugivorus
 * Microsyops angustidens
 * M. latidens
 * Omomyidae indet.


 * Artiodactyls


 * Bunophorus grangeri
 * Diacodexis cf. metsiacus
 * Simpsonodus chacensis


 * Carnivora
 * Vulpavus australis
 * Cimolesta
 * Esthonyx bisulcatus
 * Ferae


 * Ambloctonus sinosus
 * Oxyaena lupina
 * O. simpsoni


 * Glires


 * Knightomys depressus
 * K. reginensis
 * Paramys copei
 * P. nini


 * Hyaenodonta
 * Hyaenodontidae indet.
 * Insectivora
 * Apatemys bellulus
 * Pantodonta
 * Coryphodon armatus
 * Perissodactyla


 * Eohippus angustidens
 * Systemodon tapirinus
 * Xenicohippus osborni


 * Placentalia


 * Copecion brachypternus
 * Hyopsodus lysitensis
 * Hyopsodus cf. mentalis
 * Hyopsodus minor
 * Meniscotherium chamense
 * M. tapiacitum
 * Hyopsodus sp.


 * Taeniodonta
 * Ectoganus gliriformis
 * Theriiformes
 * Creodonta indet.

Reptiles

 * Snakes


 * Cheilophis huerfanoensis
 * Saniwa ensidens
 * Sanjuanophis froehlichi
 * cf. Calamagras primus
 * cf. Saniwa sp.


 * Turtles


 * Baena arenosa
 * Baptemys garmanii
 * Echmatemys lativertebralis
 * Hadrianus majusculus
 * Planetochelys dithyros
 * Trionyx leptomitus
 * Baltemys sp.
 * Chelydridae indet.
 * Trionychidae indet.


 * Lizards
 * Paraglyptosaurus cf. yatkolai
 * Lacertilia indet.

History of investigation
In late 1874, Edward Drinker Cope was a member of the Wheeler Survey but ignored orders from Wheeler to proceed north from the Chama River to Colorado. Instead, he headed south to explore the area north of the San Pedro Mountains, where fossils had been reported. He found early Eocene fossils in the badlands north of Regina, New Mexico and spent about seven weeks collecting fishes, reptiles, and what was then the oldest known mammal fossils in North America. He also collected the fossil of a giant flightless bird. Cope later wrote his father that this was "the most important find in geology I have ever made".

In 1948, G.G. Simpson visited the same area and assigned the fossil beds to the San Jose Formation. In 1967, the formation was divided (in ascending order) into the Cuba Mesa Member, Regina Member, Llaves Member, and Tapicitos Member.