Beginnings
The story of Coon Creek began near the end of the Cretaceous Period, around 71 million years ago. At that time western Tennessee, eastern Arkansas, western Kentucky, and southeast Missouri were submerged beneath the Mississippi Embayment, a bay of the Gulf of Mexico. Coon Creek was formed in shallow coastal water probably less than 100 feet deep (Russell and Parks 1975). The sea floor was heavily populated with shellfish, crabs, and lobsters. Huge plesiosaurs, marine crocodiles, sea turtles, and mosasaurs shared the waters with sharks and fierce fanged-tooth fishes. The climate was warmer than today. Coon Creek was semi-tropical, like present-day southern Florida (Wade 1926). Heavy waves from severe tropical storms constantly churned up shallower parts of the sea floor.
A couple of miles to the east lay a marshy lowland bordering the limestone bluffs of the Western Highland Rim of the Nashville Done, home to duckbill and theropod dinosaurs. Sluggish rivers annually washed tons of driftwood, along with the occasional dinosaur carcass, from this heavily forested area into the bay (Russell and Parks 1975).
Read more about this topic: Coon Creek Formation
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