The Coyote Butte Formation was first defined by Merriam and Berthiaume in 1943.[5] The formation crops out in isolated buttes (Coyote & Tuckers) south and north (Triangulation Hill) of the Grindstone and Twelvemile Creeks in Crook County, central Oregon. The formation comprises an uncommonly unaltered and well-exposed set of Permian shallow marine and reefal limestones in the tectonically complex Permian present-day Pacific margin of western North America.[6]
The Coyote Butte Formation is represented by isolated limestone hills (0.1 to 2.0 square kilometres (0.039 to 0.772 sq mi) in area), of which most appear to have the same stratigraphic and biostratigraphic sequence and appear to be right-side-up. The resistant limestone blocks stand above the surrounding rocks of the "melange." The Coyote Butte Formation represents shallow-water carbonate-platform deposition and contains a varied faunal assemblage of corals, bryozoans, algae, fusulinids, brachiopods, crinoids, and conodonts.[6]
"The Permian Coyote Butte Formation is dated by conodonts, fusulinids, and brachiopods as Aktastinian, Leonardian, and Roadian (stages of Furnish, 1973). The formation shows remarkable similarity in age, fauna, and sedimentation to the limestones near Quinn River Crossing, Nevada. The Paleozoic limestone blocks rest among oceanic-derived blocks that are probably early Mesozoic in age. To imply that the limestone belonged to the same tectonic-sedimentary package as the oceanic sediments (Dickinson and Thayer, 1978) seems precluded. The limestones contain volcaniclastic sand (Dickinson and Thayer, 1978, p. 152), indicating probable local presence of volcanics during deposition. Because the outcrops of the Coyote Butte Formation appear to all be stratigraphically right-side-up, the "melange" is not as chaotic as proposed by Dickinson and Thayer (1978); it has some order.
Also, it would be hard to imagine the Coyote Butte Formation as deposited as local limestone in a volcanic island chain and then admixed to the deformed oceanic sediments while maintaining its stratigraphic integrity.
It is easier to imagine the Coyote Butte Formation as being introduced as a late-stage structural event to deforming oceanic sediments in Mesozoic time. This implies that the other Paleozoic rocks would be similar late-stage introductions to the "melange." Whether the Coyote Butte Formation represents the remnants of a large olistostrome (gravity slide block) or thrust block or blocks that maintained stratigraphic integrity is difficult to resolve, given the poor exposures in the Coyote Butte area.
Because the Coyote Butte Formation is so similar to rocks found near Quinn River Crossing, it is suggestive that the rocks belong to a larger mass of shelfal limestones, parts of which are now found at several scattered localities."[1]
The hinterland of the carbonate platform where the Coyote Butte Limestone was deposited, was formed by the Arizonan and Utahan arid landscapes of a Pangea starting to break up. This occurred before the Sonoma orogeny was active in western North America and during the Alleghanian orogeny in eastern Laurentia and western Europe.
The 23 million year deposition coincided with impact of the Clearwater West crater, dated at 286.2 ± 2.6 million years ago.[7][8]
Paleogeography of the Early Permian, 280 Ma
Location of the Alleghanian mountain chains in the Carboniferous period, just before the Permian
Clearwater Lakes in Quebec, the larger West crater dated to 286.2 ± 2.6 Ma
![Restoration of Captorhinus from Oklahoma and Texas[note 1]](File:Captorhinus_BW.jpg)
![Ophiacodon widespread in Early Permian North America[note 2]](File:Ophiacodon_mirus.jpg)
