Late Cretaceous geology and fossils of Dinosaur Provincial Park

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis R. Braman ◽  
Donald B. Brinkman ◽  
Donald M. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Provincial Park

Red Deer River shakedown: a history of the Captain Marshall field paleontological expedition to Alberta, 1922, and its aftermath

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Brinkman
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Red Deer ◽  
Vertebrate Paleontology ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fossil Vertebrate ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Provincial Park

A Field Museum expedition to collect Late Cretaceous dinosaurs operated for three and a half months in the summer of 1922 in the Red Deer River badlands (Oldman and Dinosaur Park formations, Belly River Group) in an area now known as Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta, Canada. Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology Elmer S. Riggs led the expedition. He was ably assisted by veteran collectors George F. Sternberg and John B. Abbott. A trio of novice collectors, Anthony Dombrosky, George Bedford and C. Harold Riggs, Elmer's youngest son, rounded out the party. The expedition was a success, netting several quality specimens of duckbilled dinosaurs; one small, partial theropod skeleton; an unidentified duckbilled dinosaur skull; four turtles; other miscellaneous fossil vertebrate remains; numerous fossil plants and invertebrates; and a large fossil log. In 1956, one of these specimens—a nearly complete lambeosaurine hadrosaur reconstructed as Lambeosaurus—debuted as the less fortunate partner of Gorgosaurus in the museum's iconic ‘Dinosaurs, Predator and Prey’ exhibit in Stanley Field Hall. Both of these specimens are still on display in a permanent exhibit called ‘Evolving Planet’. Another notable specimen prepared in 1999-2000 after nearly eighty years in an unopened field jacket has been identified as a juvenile Gorgosaurus. This specimen—nicknamed ‘Elmer’—was recently touring the globe as part of the ‘Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries’ exhibit. More importantly, the expedition was an invaluable shakedown experience for the fossil hunting crew and their new equipment in the months before they left on an ambitious, multi-year fossil mammal collecting expedition to Argentina and Bolivia. An oft-repeated myth holds that Riggs viewed the Alberta expedition as a failure and departed the field the moment he obtained permission to go to South America. This paper shows that myth to be unfounded.

scholarly journals New application of strontium isotopes reveals evidence of limited migratory behaviour in Late Cretaceous hadrosaurs

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 20190930 ◽  
Author(s):  
David F. Terrill ◽  
Charles M. Henderson ◽  
Jason S. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Minimum Distance ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Migratory Behaviour ◽  
Migration Patterns ◽  
South Saskatchewan River ◽  
Migratory Pattern ◽  
Migratory Patterns ◽  
Provincial Park

Dinosaur migration patterns are very difficult to determine, often relying solely on the geographical distribution of fossils. Unfortunately, it is generally not possible to determine if a fossil taxon's geographical distribution is the result of migration or simply a wide distribution. Whereas some attempts have been made to use isotopic systems to determine migratory patterns in dinosaurs, these methods have yet to achieve wider usage in the study of dinosaur ecology. Here, we have used strontium isotope ratios from fossil enamel to reconstruct the movements of an individual hadrosaur from Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. Results from this study are consistent with a range or migratory pattern between Dinosaur Provincial Park and a contemporaneous locality in the South Saskatchewan River area, Alberta, Canada. This represents a minimum distance of approximately 80 km, which is consistent with migrations seen in modern elephants. These results suggest the continent-wide distribution of some hadrosaur species in the Late Cretaceous of North America is not the result of extremely long-range migratory behaviours.

Litho- and chronostratigraphic relationships of the Santonian–Campanian Milk River Formation in southern Alberta and Eagle Formation in Montana utilising stratigraphy, U–Pb geochronology, and palynology

2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
pp. 1553-1577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias HD Payenberg ◽  
Dennis R Braman ◽  
Donald W Davis ◽  
Andrew D Miall
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Depositional Environments ◽  
North Central ◽  
Zircon Age ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Central Montana ◽  
Milk River Formation ◽  
Eagle Formation ◽  
Provincial Park

U–Pb geochronology, palynology, and lithostratigraphy were employed on the Late Cretaceous rocks in southern Alberta and Montana to solve litho- and chronostratigraphic correlation problems. In the outcrop area around Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park, southern Alberta, the Milk River Formation has a Santonian to possibly very earliest Campanian age and was deposited between ~84.5 Ma and 83.5 Ma. In southern Montana, the Eagle Formation was deposited from ~83.5 Ma to 81.2 Ma, and contains different lithologies and depositional environments as opposed to southern Alberta. In north-central Montana, the Telegraph Creek Formation and Virgelle and Deadhorse Coulee members are equivalent in depositional environments and time to those of the Milk River Formation in southern Alberta. The upper Eagle member, however, has no time- or facies-equivalent rocks around Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park, but is time equivalent to the Alderson Member of the Lea Park Formation in southeastern Alberta. A hiatus of ~2.5 Ma is present between the top of the Milk River Formation in the outcrop area and the basal beds of the Pakowki Formation. The Pakowki transgression occurred at around 81.0 Ma based on a U–Pb zircon age of 80.7 ± 0.2 Ma from bentonite beds just above the bottom of the Pakowki Formation in southern Alberta. This age agrees with previous ages of 80.7 ± 0.6 Ma for the Ardmore Bentonite Beds and ~81.0 Ma for the Claggett transgression in southern Montana.

A basal bird from the Campanian (Late Cretaceous) of Dinosaur Provincial Park (Alberta, Canada)

2010 ◽  
Vol 147 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIC BUFFETAUT
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Western Canada ◽  
First Report ◽  
Dinosaur Park Formation ◽  
Provincial Park

AbstractA fragmentary bone from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian) of Dinosaur Provincial Park (Alberta, Canada), originally described as a pterosaur tibiotarsus, is reinterpreted as the distal end of the tibiotarsus of a basal bird, probably an enantiornithine, on the basis of several distinctive characters. It is the first report of such a bird from the Dinosaur Park Formation and shows that this group was present, together with various more derived ornithurines, in the relatively high-latitude environments of Late Cretaceous western Canada.

The first records of Elmisaurus (Saurischia, Theropoda) from North America

1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1319-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Currie
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Genetic Similarity ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Type Specimen ◽  
Longitudinal Ridge ◽  
Provincial Park

The discovery of a fused tarsometatarsus in the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) strata of Dinosaur Provincial Park shows that Elmisaurus, previously known only from Mongolia, also lived in North America. Reexamination of the type specimen of "Ornithomimus" elegans (Parks 1933) confirms the identification and provides a species name. Elmisaurus elegans is more gracile than Elmisaurus rarus, has a weaker longitudinal ridge on the fourth metatarsal, and has a pair of distal processes on metatarsals II and IV. Although six theropod families had representatives in both North America and Asia during Cretaceous times, the degree of genetic similarity is poorly understood. Analysis of the Elmisaurus material suggests that faunal interchange was still underway during the Late Cretaceous.

scholarly journals Bite marks on the frill of a juvenile Centrosaurus from the Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Provincial Park Formation, Alberta, Canada

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5748 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W.E. Hone ◽  
Darren H. Tanke ◽  
Caleb M. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Documented Case ◽  
Critical Information ◽  
Bite Marks ◽  
Record Data ◽  
Dinosaur Park Formation ◽  
Provincial Park ◽  
Rare Instance

Bite marks on bones can provide critical information about interactions between carnivores and animals they consumed (or attempted to) in the fossil record. Data from such interactions is somewhat sparse and is hampered by a lack of records in the scientific literature. Here, we present a rare instance of feeding traces on the frill of a juvenile ceratopsian dinosaur from the late Campanian Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta. It is difficult to determine the likely tracemaker(s) but the strongest candidate is a small-bodied theropod such as a dromaeosaur or juvenile tyrannosaur. This marks the first documented case of carnivore consumption of a juvenile ceratopsid, but may represent scavenging as opposed to predation.

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