Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary coal-bearing strata in the Drumheller-ardley Region, Red Deer River Valley, Alberta

1977 ◽  
Author(s):  
D W Gibson
1983 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 1219-1231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loris S. Russell

The Scollard Formation is the uppermost division of the Edmonton Group in the Red Deer River valley of central Alberta. It dates from the close of Cretaceous and the beginning of Tertiary time. It rests on a very distinctive clay sequence consisting in descending order of the Battle and Whitemud formations, which overlie in turn the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, the lowest division of the Edmonton Group. Near the top of the Battle Formation is a distinctive and widespread bed of volcanic origin (Kneehills Tuff). The contact of the Battle clay above this bed with the Scollard Formation varies in level within single exposures. A widespread coal seam (Ardley or No. 14) divides the Scollard Formation into lower and upper members. The thickness of the lower member decreases markedly from south to north, as does the level of the highest recognized dinosaur remains. There is a marked contrast between the dinosaur fauna of the lower Scollard Member and that of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation. A similar break has been observed in the floral succession. These physical and biological discordances at the Scollard–Battle contact are taken to indicate an interval of non-deposition, with or without erosion. Evidence for an analogous break occurs in southwestern and southeastern Alberta and in southern Saskatchewan.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (10) ◽  
pp. 1041-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Eberth ◽  
Sandra L. Kamo

The Battle Formation (BFm) is a widespread Upper Cretaceous marker horizon in western Canada that records a time of low sediment input and marks the boundary between the Edmontonian and Lancian land-vertebrate ages. Here, we present the first high-precision U–Pb CA–ID–TIMS age of 66.936 ± 0.047/0.060/0.140 Ma for the Battle bentonite, an altered vitric ash in the upper portion of the BFm at Knudsen’s Farm in the Red Deer River valley of Alberta. This age supersedes those previously reported, confirms that rates of sediment accumulation for the formation were very low (∼1.40 cm/ka), and allows us to interpolate an age range of ∼66.88–67.20 Ma for the BFm. Our data also provide a maximum age of ∼66.88 Ma for the base of the overlying Scollard Formation, a dinosaur-rich unit. We combine our age data with calibrated magneto- and palynostratigraphic data to assess chronostratigraphic correlations among the Scollard Formation of Alberta, the Frenchman Formation of Saskatchewan, and the Hell Creek Formation in eastern Montana. Whereas the combined data support previous interpretations that equate the age ranges of the Scollard Formation, Frenchman Formation, and the upper one third of the Hell Creek Formation in eastern Montana, they also indicate that all of the lower one third (L3) and part of the middle one third (M3) of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana are chronostratigraphically equivalent to all or part of the sub-BFm unconformity and the BFm in Alberta. Accordingly, a minimum age of ∼67.20 Ma is assessed for the base of the Hell Creek Formation in its type area.


2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (10) ◽  
pp. 1220-1237 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Eberth ◽  
Sandra L. Kamo

The non-marine Horseshoe Canyon Formation (HCFm, southern Alberta) yields taxonomically diverse, late Campanian to middle Maastrichtian dinosaur assemblages that play a central role in documenting dinosaur evolution, paleoecology, and paleobiogeography leading up to the end-Cretaceous extinction. Here, we present high-precision U–Pb CA–ID–TIMS ages and the first calibrated chronostratigraphy for the HCFm using zircon grains from (1) four HCFm bentonites distributed through 129 m of section, (2) one bentonite from the underlying Bearpaw Formation, and (3) a bentonite from the overlying Battle Formation that we dated previously. In its type area, the HCFm ranges in age from 73.1–68.0 Ma. Significant paleoenvironmental and climatic changes are recorded in the formation, including (1) a transition from a warm-and-wet deltaic setting to a cooler, seasonally wet-dry coastal plain at 71.5 Ma, (2) maximum transgression of the Drumheller Marine Tongue at 70.896 ± 0.048 Ma, and (3) transition to a warm-wet alluvial plain at 69.6 Ma. The HCFm’s three mega-herbivore dinosaur assemblage zones track these changes and are calibrated as follows: Edmontosaurus regalis – Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis zone, 73.1–71.5 Ma; Hypacrosaurus altispinus – Saurolophus osborni zone, 71.5–69.6 Ma; and Eotriceratops xerinsularis zone, 69.6–68.2 Ma. The Albertosaurus Bonebed — a monodominant assemblage of tyrannosaurids in the Tolman Member — is assessed an age of 70.1 Ma. The unusual triceratopsin, Eotriceratops xerinsularis, from the Carbon Member, is assessed an age of 68.8 Ma. This chronostratigraphy is useful for refining correlations with dinosaur-bearing upper Campanian–middle Maastrichtian units in Alberta and elsewhere in North America.


1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 1263-1269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas D. Demchuk

Paleocene strata of the Scollard and Paskapoo formations in the central and south-central Alberta Plains can be subdivided into five formal biostratigraphic zones, based in part on a Momipites–Caryapollenites palynofloral lineage. A similar zonation previously identified from strata of the Wind River basin in Wyoming displays similar palynomorph occurrences. However, differences that are present are likely a result of latitudinal climatic zonation between Alberta and Wyoming during Paleocene time.Lowermost Paleocene strata of Alberta (Wodehouseia fimbriata Zone) are barren of Momipites species, which subsequently first appear in the Momipites wyomingensis Zone. These two zones include strata from the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary (Nevis coal seam) to the top of the Scollard Formation. A diverse assemblage of Momipites spp. plus Aquilapollenites spinulosus, Caryapollenites prodromus, and Tiliaepollenites danei are present in the Aquilapollenites spinulosus Zone within the lowermost Paskapoo Formation. Two more species of Caryapollenites appear in the Caryapollenites wodehousei Zone. The Pistillipollenites mcgregorii Zone is characterized by the presence of Pistillipollenites mcgregorii, Insulapollenites rugulatus, and Caryapollenites inelegans. Momipites leffingwellii is absent from the lower portion of this zone, with Momipites waltmanensis, Momipites actinus, and Momipites triorbicularis absent from the upper portion. Lower P. mcgregorii Zone strata are the youngest strata encountered in the vicinity of the Red Deer River valley. Upper P. mcgregorii Zone strata include strata of the Obed–Marsh coal zone within the uppermost part of the Paskapoo Formation adjacent to the Alberta Foothills.


1939 ◽  
Vol 71 (10) ◽  
pp. 216-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. McDunnough

For years several specimens of a Papilio form from Alberta, allied to oregonia Edw., have stood apart in the Canadian National Collection. Time and again I have puzzled over them but could never make them fit exactly under any of the existing names. Three of the series (males) came to us with the Wolley-Dod collection and were captured in 1905 in the bad lands of the Red Deer River Valley, somewhere near Drumheller; a fourth specimen (a female) was taken in the same general region in 1917 by C. H. Young.


2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (12) ◽  
pp. 1689-1704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Chun Wu ◽  
Donald B Brinkman ◽  
Richard C Fox

Borealosuchus griffithi, sp. nov., is described on the basis of an incomplete skeleton from the basal Paleocene, southern Alberta. This new species records one of a few basal Cenozoic occurrences of Crocodylia so far known. B. griffithi is most distinctive in having a markedly laterally concavo-convex snout; a deep, elongate recess or fossa on the anteroventral surface of the jugal; and a large, nearly rectangular incisive foramen. Within Borealosuchus, B. griffithi probably takes a "more crownward" position than does B. sternbergii of the late Late Cretaceous. With additional information from the new species, the diagnosis of Borealosuchus is revised.


1964 ◽  
Vol S7-VI (2) ◽  
pp. 273-277
Author(s):  
Jean Cuvillier ◽  
Jacques Henry ◽  
Richard Ribis ◽  
Michel Villanova

Abstract The upper Cretaceous 'canyon' limestone or Hippurites limestone of the Aspe river valley in the Basses-Pyrenees of southwestern France is transgressive upon Paleozoic formations of the western part of the axial zone of the Pyrenees. The limestone is locally underlain by a thin bed of quartz conglomerate, quartzite, and shale of unknown age. The basal part of the limestone, generally sandy or conglomeratic and with local beds of dolomite, is dated as Cenomanian (basal upper Cretaceous) by the foraminifer Praealveolina cretacea cf. brevis. The top is dated as upper Santonian (uppermost lower Senonian: upper Cretaceous) by the association Lacazina aff. elongata, Orbitoides tissoti var. densa, Nummofallotia cretacea, and large miliolids.


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