Frenchman Formation

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Frenchman Formation
Stratigraphic range: Upper Cretaceous
Type Geological formation
Underlies Ravenscrag Formation
Overlies Battle Formation, Whitemud Formation, Eastend Formation, Bearpaw Formation
Thicknessup to 113 meters (371 ft) [1]
Lithology
Primary Sandstone
Other Claystone, conglomerate
Location
Coordinates 49°29′27″N108°54′17″W / 49.49073°N 108.90467°W / 49.49073; -108.90467 (Frenchman Formation)
Region Western Canada Sedimentary Basin:
Flag of Alberta.svg  Alberta
Flag of Saskatchewan.svg  Saskatchewan
CountryFlag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada
Type section
Named for Frenchman River
Named byFurnival, 1942

The Frenchman Formation is stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is present in southern Saskatchewan and the Cypress Hills of southeastern Alberta. The formation was defined by G.M. Furnival in 1942 [2] from observations of outcrops along the Frenchman River, between Ravenscrag and Highway 37. It contains the youngest of dinosaur genera, much like the Hell Creek Formation in the United States.

Contents

Lithology

The Frenchman Formation consists of olive-green to brown, fine- to coarse-grained, cross-bedded sandstone with interbedded claystone bands and minor beds and lenses of intraformational clay-clast conglomerate. [1] A conglomerate layer with well-rounded quartzite pebbles is present above the basal unconformity in some areas. [3]

Thickness and distribution

The Frenchman Formation is present in southwestern Saskatchewan and the Cypress Hills area of southeastern Alberta. Its maximum reported thickness is about 113 m. [3]

Age

The Frenchman Formation is of latest Maastrichtian age, and the top of the formation coincides with the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, as evidenced by biostratigraphic changes and, in some areas, the presence of the terminal Cretaceous iridium anomaly. [4]

Relationship to other units

Although some early workers included the Frenchman Formation in the overlying Ravenscrag Formation, the two are separated by the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and are now treated separately. The contact is abrupt but conformable, and occurs at the base of the No. 1 or Ferris coal seam of the Ravenscrag Formation. [3]

The Frenchman is separated from the underlying formations by an erosional unconformity, and depending on the depth of the erosion, the Frenchman rests on the Whitemud Formation, the Battle Formation, the Eastend Formation, or the Bearpaw Formation. [3] It is equivalent in age to the lower part of the Scollard Formation, the lower part of the Willow Creek Formation, the lower part of the Coalspur Formation in Alberta, and the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and North Dakota.

Paleontology

Mammals and birds

J.E. Storer described fossil mammals from the Gryde locality in the Frenchman Formation, including Parectypodus and Alphadon . [5] A bone (the humeral end of the left coracoid) of a bird attributed to the genus Cimolopteryx has also been described from the Gryde locality. [6]

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs reported from the Frenchman Formation
GenusSpeciesLocationStratigraphic positionMaterialNotesImages
Ankylosaurus A. magniventrisAn ankylosaurine ankylosaurid Ankylosaurus magniventris reconstruction.png

Cimolopteryx

C. rara

Edmontosaurus

E. annectens

"Complete skull, [three or four] partial skulls." [7]

A hadrosaurid [8]

Anatotitan BW.jpg
E. saskatchewanensis

Junior synonym of E. annectens [8]

Thescelosaurus

T. assiniboiensis

Nearly complete skeleton Thescelosaurus filamented.jpg
Sphaerotholus [9] cf. S. buchholtzae"nearly complete left postorbital"The first pachycephalosaurid reported from the Frenchman Formation Sphaerotholus.jpg

Torosaurus

T. latus

FrillA large chasmosaurine ceratopsian distinct from Triceratops. Fossils have also been unearthed in the Scollard Formation. [10] Torosaurus BW.jpg

Chasmosaurinae indet.

[11]

Triceratops

T. prorsus

Redpath, SaskatchewanNearly Complete Skull, one other partial skull [11] Being one of the most popular Dinosaurs, they are widely known. LA-Triceratops mount-2.jpg

Tyrannosaurus

T. rex

Nearly complete skeleton"Scotty", possibly the largest T. rex ever discovered, is from the Frenchman Formation Tyrannosaurus rex mmartyniuk.png


See also

Related Research Articles

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The Maastrichtian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from 72.1 to 66 million years ago. The Maastrichtian was preceded by the Campanian and succeeded by the Danian.

<i>Thescelosaurus</i> Ornithischian dinosaur genus from Late Cretaceous US and Canada

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<i>Leptoceratops</i> Extinct genus of ceratopsian dinosaur

Leptoceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America. First found in Alberta in 1910, the type species Leptoceratops gracilis was named in 1914 by Barnum Brown for a partial skull and skeleton of two individuals found in the Scollard Formation of Alberta. Additional specimens found in the Scollard include one complete and two mostly complete skeletons together, uncovered in 1947 by Charles M. Sternberg. Specimens from Montana that were among the earliest referred to Leptoceratops have since been moved to their own genera Montanoceratops and Cerasinops, while new specimens of L. gracilis include bonebed remains from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and a partial skeleton from the Lance Formation of Wyoming. Together with related taxa, Leptoceratops is the eponymous genus of the family Leptoceratopsidae. Leptoceratops is known from more than ten individuals, all from Maastrichtian deposits of Alberta, Montana and Wyoming, representing the entire skeleton.

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The Ravenscrag Formation is a stratigraphic unit of early Paleocene age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It was named for the settlement of Ravenscrag, Saskatchewan, and was first described from outcrops at Ravenscrag Butte near the Frenchman River by N.B. Davis in 1918.

The Eastend Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Maastrichtian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes its name from the town of Eastend, Saskatchewan, and was first described in outcrop around the settlement by L.S. Russell in 1932. The type locality was later defined south-west of the town by W.O. Kupsch in 1956.

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The Coalspur Formation is an Upper Cretaceous to lower Palaeocene stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the foothills of southwestern Alberta. Its deposition spanned the time interval from latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to early Palaeocene, and it includes sediments that were deposited before, during, and after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event. It includes the economically important coal deposits of the Coalspur Coal Zone, as well as nonmarine plant and animal fossils.

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References

  1. 1 2 Lexicon of Canadian Geological Units. "Frenchman Formation" . Retrieved 2010-01-17.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. Furnival, G.M., 1942. Preliminary Map, Cypress Lake, Saskatchewan; Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 42-5, contains Preliminary Map 42-5, Cypress Lake, West of Third Meridian, Saskatchewan, Scale: 1 inch to 2 miles.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Glass, D.J., editor, 1997. Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, vol. 4, Western Canada. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Calgary, Alberta, 1423 p. on CD-ROM, ISBN   0-920230-23-7.
  4. Lerbekmo, J.F., Sweet, A.R. and St. Louis, R.M. 1987. The relationship between the iridium anomaly and palynofloral events at three Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary localities in western Canada. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 99:25-330.
  5. Storer, J.E. (1991). The mammals of the Gryde local fauna, Frenchman Formation (Maastrichtian: Lancian), Saskatchewan. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 11, no. 3, p. 350-396.
  6. Tokaryk, T.T. and James, P.C. 1989. Cimolopteryx sp. (Aves: Charadriiformes) from the Frenchman Formation (Maastrichtian), Saskatchewan. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 26, p. 2729-2730.
  7. "Table 20.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 440.
  8. 1 2 Campione, N.E. and Evans, D.C. (2011). "Cranial Growth and Variation in Edmontosaurs (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae): Implications for Latest Cretaceous Megaherbivore Diversity in North America." PLoS ONE, 6(9): e25186. doi : 10.1371/journal.pone.0025186
  9. Mallon, Jordan C.; Evans, David C.; Tokaryk, Tim T.; Currie, Margaret L. (2015-09-01). "First pachycephalosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Frenchman Formation (upper Maastrichtian) of Saskatchewan, Canada". Cretaceous Research. 56: 426–431. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2015.06.005. ISSN   0195-6671.
  10. Mallon, Jordan C; Holmes, Robert B; Bamforth, Emily L; Schumann, Dirk (2022). "The record of Torosaurus (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae) in Canada and its taxonomic implications". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 195 (1): 157–171. doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab120 . ISSN   0024-4082.
  11. 1 2 Tokaryk, T. 1986. Ceratopsian dinosaurs from the Frenchman Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Saskatchewan. Canadian Field-Naturalist 100:192–196.