An edentulous frog (Lissamphibia; Anura) from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Dinosaur Park Formation of southeastern Alberta, Canada

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 569-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
James D. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Tooth Loss ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Relative Depth ◽  
Surface Form ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Park Area ◽  
Dinosaur Park Formation ◽  
Provincial Park ◽  
Labial Surface

The frog Tyrrellbatrachus brinkmani, gen. et sp. nov., is described on the basis of seven incomplete maxillae from vertebrate microfossil localities in the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Dinosaur Park Formation, in the Dinosaur Provincial Park area, southeastern Alberta, Canada. The maxillae are distinctive in a unique suite of features related to size, shape, and proportions of the bone, texture of the labial surface, form of the surface for inferred contact with the squamosal, form of the lamina horizontalis and the processus pterygoideus, relative depth of the crista dentalis, and in being edentulous (i.e., lacking teeth). The higher level affinities of Tyrrellbatrachus are uncertain, although certain features exclude it from several known families; for example, the presence of a processus pterygoideus excludes it from Gobiatidae (Late Cretaceous, Asia), whereas the presence of a crista dentalis and of a relatively unreduced pars facialis exclude it from Pipidae (Cretaceous–Recent, Africa and South America). The lack of teeth in Tyrrellbatrachus is notable because although tooth loss is widespread among extant anurans and has arisen independently multiple times, it has rarely been documented among Mesozoic anurans. Comparisons with the only other edentulous anuran from the Mesozoic of the Northern Hemisphere, namely Theatonius (late Campanian – late Maastrichtian, western USA), reveal no compelling similarities to support a close relationship between the two genera. Those taxa represent an early (Campanian) instance of independent tooth loss in anurans and, potentially, the oldest record of tooth loss in nonpipid anurans.

Origins of dinosaur bonebeds in the Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 655-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Eberth
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Seasonal Basis ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Scientific Attention ◽  
Flooding Events ◽  
Dinosaur Park Formation ◽  
Warm Temperate ◽  
Provincial Park

Upper Cretaceous dinosaur bonebeds are common in Alberta, Canada, and have attracted continuous scientific attention since the 1960s. Since its inception, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology has documented the presence of hundreds of these sites and has been involved directly in the scientific study of many tens. Because many of these bonebeds have been used to address questions about the paleobiology and paleoecology of dinosaurs, questions have arisen about bonebed origins and preservation in the Cretaceous of Alberta. This study of 260 bonebeds delineates broad paleoenvironmental settings and associations, and taphonomic signatures of assemblages as a first step in assessing patterns of dinosaur bonebed origins in the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta. Bonebeds are known predominantly from the Belly River Group and the Horseshoe Canyon, lower St. Mary River, Wapiti, and Scollard formations. In these units, bonebeds are mostly associated with river channel and alluvial wetland settings that were influenced by a subtropical to warm-temperate, monsoonal climate. Most bonebeds formed in response to flooding events capable of killing dinosaurs, reworking and modifying skeletal remains, and burying taphocoenoses. The “coastal-plain-flooding hypothesis,” proposed in 2005, suggested that many bonebeds in the Dinosaur Park Formation formed in response to the effects of recurring coastal-plain floods that submerged vast areas of ancient southern Alberta on a seasonal basis. It remains the best mechanism to explain how many of the bonebeds were formed and preserved at Dinosaur Provincial Park, and here, is proposed as the mechanism that best explains bonebed origins in other Upper Cretaceous formations across central and southern Alberta.

A xiphisternal from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian, Upper Cretaceous) of Alberta, Canada

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1661-1663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Godfrey ◽  
Philip J. Currie
Keyword(s):  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Dinosaur Park Formation ◽  
Provincial Park

Xiphisternal elements of dinosaurs are only rarely recovered, probably because they seldom ossified and those that did were fragile and easily destroyed. An isolated but relatively complete, right xiphisternal element was collected from the Dinosaur Park Formation of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. It apparently contacted the left xiphisternal, the sternum, and at least three costal cartilages. Similar in overall morphology to xiphisternals of Edmontonia, Nodosaurus, and Panoplosaurus, it can be referred to the ankylosaur family Nodosauridae.

Anatomical, morphometric, and stratigraphic analyses of theropod biodiversity in the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Dinosaur Park Formation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Cullen ◽  
Lindsay Zanno ◽  
Derek W. Larson ◽  
Erinn Todd ◽  
Philip J. Currie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
North America ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Morphometric Analyses ◽  
Variable Distribution ◽  
Taxic Diversity ◽  
Dinosaur Park Formation ◽  
Broad Scale

The Dinosaur Park Formation (DPF) of Alberta, Canada, has produced one of the most diverse dinosaur faunas, with the record favouring large-bodied taxa, in terms of number and completeness of skeletons. Although small theropods are well documented in the assemblage, taxonomic assessments are frequently based on isolated, fragmentary skeletal elements. Here we reassess DPF theropod biodiversity using morphological comparisons, high-resolution biostratigraphy, and morphometric analyses, with a focus on specimens/taxa originally described from isolated material. In addition to clarifying taxic diversity, we test whether DPF theropods preserve faunal zonation/turnover patterns similar to those previously documented for megaherbivores. Frontal bones referred to a therizinosaur (cf. Erlikosaurus), representing among the only skeletal record of the group from the Campanian–Maastrichtian (83–66 Ma) fossil record of North America, plot most closely to troodontids in morphospace, distinct from non-DPF therizinosaurs, a placement supported by a suite of troodontid anatomical frontal characters. Postcranial material referred to cf. Erlikosaurus in North America is also reviewed and found most similar in morphology to caenagnathids, rather than therizinosaurs. Among troodontids, we document considerable morphospace and biostratigraphic overlap between Stenonychosaurus and the recently described Latenivenatrix, as well as a variable distribution of putatively autapomorphic characters, calling the validity of the latter taxon into question. Biostratigraphically, there are no broad-scale patterns of faunal zonation similar to those previously documented in ornithischians from the DPF, with many theropods ranging throughout much of the formation and overlapping extensively, possibly reflecting a lack of sensitivity to environmental changes, or other cryptic ecological or evolutionary factors.

The first record of spiral coprolites from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Judith River Group, Upper Cretaceous) southern Alberta, Canada

1995 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 1191-1194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive E. Coy
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
First Record ◽  
Niobrara Formation ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Dinosaur Park Formation

Spiral coprolites from the Upper Cretaceous of North America are poorly known. Enterospirae (fossilized intestines) reported from the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation of western Kansas (Stewart, 1978) were disputed by McAllister (1985), who felt they represented spiral coprolites similar to those described from the Permian by Neumayer (1904). Previously described coprolites from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta are small, unstructured, ellipsoidal forms thought to derive from a crocodilian or terrestrial, carnivorous reptile of necrophagic or piscivorous habits (Waldman, 1970; Waldman and Hopkins, 1970).

The Cretaceous and Paleocene pleurotomariid (Gastropoda: Vetigastropoda) fauna of Seymour Island, Antarctica

2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 750-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. G. Harasewych ◽  
Anton Oleinik ◽  
William Zinsmeister
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
South America ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Southern India ◽  
New Combination ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Status ◽  
Seymour Island

Leptomaria antipodensis and Leptomaria hickmanae are described from the Upper Cretaceous [Maastrichtian] Lopez de Bertodano Formation, Seymour Island, and represent the first Mesozoic records of the family Pleurotomariidae from Antarctica. Leptomaria stillwelli, L. seymourensis, Conotomaria sobralensis and C. bayeri, from the Paleocene [Danian], Sobral Formation, Seymour Island, are described as new. Leptomaria larseniana (Wilckens, 1911) new combination, also from the Sobral Formation, is redescribed based on better-preserved material. The limited diversity of the pleurotomariid fauna of Seymour Island is more similar to that of the Late Cretaceous faunas of Australia and New Zealand in terms of the number of genera and species, than to the older, more diverse faunas of South America, southern India, or northwestern Madagascar, supporting the status of the Weddelian Province as a distinct biogeographic unit. The increase in the species richness of this fauna during the Danian may be due to the final fragmentation of Gondwana during this period.

Growth and reproductive biology of Joffrea speirsii gen. et sp. nov., a Cercidiphyllum-like plant from the Late Paleocene of Alberta, Canada

1985 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter R. Crane ◽  
Ruth A. Stockey
Keyword(s):  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Constant Field ◽  
Short Shoot ◽  
Early Tertiary ◽  
Late Paleocene ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Field Association ◽  
Short Shoots ◽  
Floodplain Habitats

Six kinds of angiosperm compression fossils are described from the Paskapoo Formation (Late Paleocene) at Joffre Bridge near Red Deer, Alta. Pistillate inflorescences with attached carpels, folliculate infructescences, seeds, seedlings, leaves, and shoots arc all assigned to Joffrea speirsii gen. et sp. nov. Crane and Stockey. Evidence for treating the different organs under a single binomial includes attachment of inflorescences and leaf petioles to long and short shoot systems, morphological intermediates between carpels and follicles, follicles preserved expelling seeds, seeds preserved during germination, stages in seedling development, similarity between seedling and adult foliage, and constant field association. Joffrea is similar in many respects to the widespread Upper Cretaceous and early Tertiary fossil Nyssidium arcticum (Heer) Iljinskaja. Comparison of Joffrea to the extant genera Cercidiphyllum Siebold et Zuccarini, Trochodendron Siebold et Zuccarini, and Tetracentron Oliver indicates a close relationship to Cercidiphyllum; and Joffrea is interpreted as an extinct representative of the family Cercidiphyllaceae. The fossil material clarifies morphological interpretations of the pistillate reproductive structures in extant Cercidiphyllum. The probable staminate inflorescences of Joffrea, are also similar to extant Cercidiphyllum. They are budlike and composed of 10–20 bracts, some of which have stamens in their axils. Pollen has not been recovered from the anthers. Pistillate inflorescences developed from axillary buds on the short shoots and were probably wind-pollinated. The production of numerous small winged seeds, epigeal germination, and the preservation of large numbers of in situ seedlings suggest that Joffrea speirsii and similar extinct Upper Cretaceous and early Tertiary species may have been "weedy" plants capable of rapidly colonizing open floodplain habitats.

scholarly journals A Leaf from Algonquin Park: Preliminary findings of a content analysis of information practice stereotypes in the documentary trail of a world-famous provincial park (1890-2018)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Pollak
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Retrospective Study ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Information Practice ◽  
Park Area ◽  
Information Seeking Behaviors ◽  
Analyse De Contenu ◽  
Provincial Park ◽  
Étude Rétrospective

This longitudinal, retrospective study presents preliminary findings from an in-progress content analysis of the documentary paper trail associated with Algonquin Provincial Park. The project seeks to understand how local residents, visitors and Indigenous people of the Algonquin Park area are represented in published accounts of people who have come into contact with them, and how those representations reflect the actual information seeking behaviors of, and stereotypes associated with, these rural populations.Cette étude rétrospective longitudinale présente les résultats préliminaires d'une analyse de contenu en cours de la trace documentaire associée au parc provincial Algonquin. Le projet vise à comprendre comment les résidents locaux, les visiteurs et les Autochtones de la région du parc Algonquin sont représentés dans des comptes rendus publiés de personnes qui ont été en contact avec eux et comment ces représentations reflètent les comportements actuels de recherche d'information de ces populations rurales et les stéréotypes qui leur sont associés.

Character evolution and the origin of Caimaninae (Crocodylia) in the New World Tropics: new evidence from the Miocene of Panama and Venezuela

2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander K. Hastings ◽  
Moritz Reisser ◽  
Torsten M. Scheyer
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
New World ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Character Evolution ◽  
Lower Jaw ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Cladistic Analyses ◽  
North And South America ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
North And South

AbstractAlligators and caimans share a close relationship, supported by both molecular and morphological characters. The divergence between alligators and caimans has been difficult to discern in the fossil record. Two basal taxa have recently been described from the Miocene of Panama and Venezuela but have not yet been presented in a joint phylogeny. Continued preparation of the type material of the Venezuelan Globidentosuchus brachyrostris Scheyer et al., 2013 has revealed new characters for scoring in a cladistic framework. In addition, the first lower jaw of the Panamanian Centenariosuchus gilmorei Hastings et al., 2013 is described herein, and additional characters were scored. In total, we conducted five cladistic analyses to better understand the character evolution involved in the establishment of Caimaninae. In each case, Globidentosuchus appears as the basal-most of the caimanine lineage, followed by Culebrasuchus mesoamericanus Hastings et al., 2013 from Panama. Stepwise character additions of synapomorphies define progressively more derived caimanines, but stratigraphic context creates ghost lineages extending from the Miocene to Paleocene. The persistence of two basal taxa into the Miocene of northern South America and Central America supports the concept of a relict basal population in this region. This further supports biogeographic hypotheses of dispersals in both directions between North and South America prior to full land connection.

scholarly journals Microsatellite typing of ancient maize: insights into the history of agriculture in southern South America

2006 ◽  
Vol 274 (1609) ◽  
pp. 545-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verónica V Lia ◽  
Viviana A Confalonieri ◽  
Norma Ratto ◽  
Julián A. Cámara Hernández ◽  
Ana M. Miante Alzogaray ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Microsatellite Loci ◽  
Southern South America ◽  
Maize Cultivation ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Frequent Allele ◽  
Positive Results

Archaeological maize specimens from Andean sites of southern South America, dating from 400 to 1400 years before present, were tested for the presence of ancient DNA and three microsatellite loci were typed in the specimens that gave positive results. Genotypes were also obtained for 146 individuals corresponding to modern landraces currently cultivated in the same areas and for 21 plants from Argentinian lowland races. Sequence analysis of cloned ancient DNA products revealed a high incidence of substitutions appearing in only one clone, with transitions prevalent. In the archaeological specimens, there was no evidence of polymorphism at any one of the three microsatellite loci: each exhibited a single allelic variant, identical to the most frequent allele found in contemporary populations belonging to races Amarillo Chico, Amarillo Grande, Blanco and Altiplano. Affiliation between ancient specimens and a set of races from the Andean complex was further supported by assignment tests. The striking genetic uniformity displayed by the ancient specimens and their close relationship with the Andean complex suggest that the latter gene pool has predominated in the western regions of southern South America for at least the past 1400 years. The results support hypotheses suggesting that maize cultivation initially spread into South America via a highland route, rather than through the lowlands.

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