Vale Formation

The Vale Formation is named after a former post office in the vicinity of Ballinger in Runnels County. The conglomerates of the Vale Formation occur in two distinct forms, either large light-colored fragments or (particularly in the northern area) dark brown pebbles derived from the surrounding clay. Light even-bedded clay (pond deposits) may occasionally be found. Though quite fossiliferous, the fossils of the Vale Formation have not been studied as long as older parts of the Texas red beds, some of which have been prospected since the 1870s. Geologists of the University of Texas discovered the first fossils from the Vale Formation in the 1930s, at the Sid McAdams locality in Taylor County. Over 60 small fossil sites are scattered south of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. == Paleobiota ==

Synapsids Reptiles The largest true reptile known from the Vale Formation is an indeterminate moradisaurine captorhinid represented by an enormous tooth plate, at least in length. As a moradisaurine fossil, it corresponds to a skull around long, larger than Labidosaurikos meachami but smaller than Moradisaurus grandis. Amphibians An indeterminate hapsidopareiid microsaur is known from the Mud Hill locality. It is potentially one of the youngest known microsaurs, apart from a few rhynchonkids known from Choza-equivalent strata near Norman, Oklahoma. ==See also==