Selma Group

Selma Group
Stratigraphic range: Upper Cretaceous
Prairie Bluff Chalk Formation of the Selma Group exposed in Starkville, Mississippi.
Type	Geological formation
Sub-units	Mooreville Chalk Formation Demopolis Chalk Formation Ripley Formation Prairie Bluff Chalk Formation
Underlies	Midway Group
Overlies	Eutaw Formation
Lithology
Primary	Chalk
Other	Glauconitic sandstone
Location
Region	Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee
Country	United States
Type section
Named for	Selma, Alabama

Stratigraphic column for the Selma

The Selma Group is a geological formation in North America, within the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The strata date from the Santonian to the Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. The group is composed of, in ascending order, the Mooreville Chalk Formation, Demopolis Chalk Formation, Ripley Formation, and Prairie Bluff Chalk Formation. Dinosaur and mosasaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the Selma Group.[1][2]

Oil was discovered in 1939 within the Late Cretaceous Woodruff Sandstone within the Selma Chalk Formation. Known as Mississippi's first oil field, the Tinsley Oil Field is located adjacent to Tinsley, Mississippi.[3]

See also

• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations

References

1. Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Cretaceous, North America)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 574-588. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
2. Kiernan, Caitlin R. (2002). "Stratigraphic distribution and habitat segregation of mosasaurs in the Upper Cretaceous of western and central Alabama, with an historical review of Alabama mosasaur discoveries". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 22 (1): 91–103. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022[0091:SDAHSO]2.0.CO;2. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
3. Shelton, M.F. (1976). Braunstein, Jules (ed.). Tinsley Oil Field, Yazoo County, Mississippi, in North American Oil and Gas Fields. Tulsa: The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. pp. 239–258. ISBN 0891813004.