Oldman Formation | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: Campanian, | |
Type | Geological formation |
Unit of | Belly River Group |
Underlies | Dinosaur Park Formation |
Overlies | Foremost Formation |
Thickness | up to 328 feet (100 m) [1] |
Lithology | |
Primary | Sandstone |
Other | Mudstone and bentonite |
Location | |
Coordinates | 49°37′41″N112°53′23″W / 49.62806°N 112.88972°W |
Region | Western Canada Sedimentary Basin |
Country | ![]() |
Type section | |
Named for | Oldman River |
Named by | Russell, L.S. and Landes, R.W. |
Year defined | 1940 [2] |
The Oldman Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous (Campanian stage) age that underlies much of southern Alberta, Canada. It consists primarily of sandstones that were deposited in fluvial channel and floodplain environments. It was named for exposures along the Oldman River between its confluence with the St. Mary River and the city of Lethbridge, and it is known primarily for its dinosaur remains and other fossils. [3]
The Oldman Formation is composed primarily of light-colored, fine-grained sandstones. They are upward-fining, lenticular to sheet-like bodies that are yellowish, steep-faced and blocky in outcrop. The formation also includes lesser amounts of siltstone and mudstone. [4]
The sediments of the Oldman Formation were deposited in fluvial channels (the sandstones) and a variety of channel margin, overbank and floodplain environments (the siltstones and mudstones). The formation is about 40 metres (130 ft) thick at Dinosaur Provincial Park in southeastern Alberta. It thickens toward the southwest, and northwestern Montana appears to have been the primary source of the sediments. [4]
The Oldman Formation is a member of the Belly River Group (also known as the Judith River Group). It conformably overlies the Foremost Formation, and is separated from the overlying Dinosaur Park Formation by a regional disconformity. The sediments of the Oldman are superficially similar to those of the Dinosaur Park, which was included in the Oldman Formation prior to the recognition of the disconformity. The two formations can also be distinguished by petrographic and sedimentologic differences. [3] [4]
The Oldman Formation was deposited during the middle Campanian, between about 77.5 and 76.5 million years ago. [5] It lies fully within magnetic polarity Chron 33n. [6]
List of dinosaurs found in the formation: [5] [7]
Color key
| Notes Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; |
Theropods of the Oldman Formation | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
Daspletosaurus | D. torosus | Lower | Several specimens with a complete skeleton | A tyrannosaurid | ![]() | |
Unnamed species [8] | Upper | A skull | A new species of tyrannosaurid | |||
Dromaeosaurus | Indeterminate | Teeth | A dromaeosaurid | ![]() | ||
cf. Hesperonychus [9] | Indeterminate | Foot claw | A dromaeosaurid or an avialan [10] | ![]() | ||
Paronychodon | Indeterminate | Teeth | A troodontid | |||
Prismatoolithus [11] | P. levis | Partial clutch containing 12 eggs | ||||
Ricardoestesia | R. isosceles | Misreported | ||||
Indeterminate | Teeth | A dromaeosaurid | ||||
Saurornitholestes | S. langstoni | Partial remains | A dromaeosaurid | ![]() | ||
Troodon | Dubious | Teeth, eggs, embryos | A dubious taxon of troodontid, most specimens formerly considered Troodon have been reassigned to other genera such as Stenonychosaurus | ![]() | ||
Struthiomimus | S. altus | Several specimens, including a nearly complete skeleton [12] | An ornithomimid | ![]() | ||
Ornithischians of the Oldman Formation | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
Albertaceratops | A. nesmoi | Lower | Single Skull | A ceratopsid | ![]() | |
Albertadromeus [13] | A. syntarsus | Upper | A thescelosaurid | |||
Anchiceratops | Indeterminate | A ceratopsid | ![]() | |||
Brachylophosaurus | B. canadensis | Upper | Skull And partial skeleton | A hadrosaurid | ![]() | |
Chasmosaurus | C. brevirostris | Junior synonym of C. russelli | ![]() | |||
C. russelli | Upper | A ceratopsid, also found in the Dinosaur Park Formation | ||||
Coronosaurus | C. brinkmani | Upper | A ceratopsid | ![]() | ||
Corythosaurus | C. casuarius | Upper | A hadrosaurid, also found in the Dinosaur Park Formation | |||
Foraminacephale | F. brevis | Also known from the Dinosaur Park Formation [14] | A pachycephalosaurid, once thought to be a species of Stegoceras | ![]() | ||
Gremlin [15] | G. slobodorum | Lower | A right frontal | A leptoceratopsid | ||
Hanssuesia | H. sternbergi | Upper, also present in the Dinosaur Park Formation and Judith River Formation | skull dome | A pachycephalosaurid, potentially synonymous with Stegoceras validum [16] | ![]() | |
Maiasaura | M. peeblesorum | Upper | A hadrosaurid, also known from the Two Medicine Formation. [17] | |||
Parasaurolophus | P. walkeri | Upper | A hadrosaurid, also found in the Dinosaur Park Formation | ![]() | ||
Scolosaurus | S. cutleri | Upper | An ankylosaurid, may actually be from the Dinosaur Park Formation | ![]() | ||
Wendiceratops | W. pinhornensis | Lower | Partial Skeleton And Partial Skull | A centrosaurine | ![]() | |
An unnamed orodromine | Unnamed | Upper | An orodromine distinct from Albertadromeus. Closer to Oryctodromeus than to Albertadromeus, Orodromeus , and Zephyrosaurus . [13] |
A bone bed is any geological stratum or deposit that contains bones of whatever kind. Inevitably, such deposits are sedimentary in nature. Not a formal term, it tends to be used more to describe especially dense collections such as Lagerstätte. It is also applied to brecciated and stalagmitic deposits on the floor of caves, which frequently contain osseous remains.
Anchiceratops is an extinct genus of chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that lived approximately 72 to 71 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Alberta, Canada. Anchiceratops was a medium-sized, heavily built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore that could grow up to an estimated 4.3 metres (14 ft) long. Its skull featured two long brow horns and a short horn on the nose. The skull frill was elongated and rectangular, its edges adorned by coarse triangular projections. About a dozen skulls of the genus have been found.
Chirostenotes is a genus of oviraptorosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. The type species is Chirostenotes pergracilis.
The Dinosaur Park Formation is the uppermost member of the Belly River Group, a major geologic unit in southern Alberta. It was deposited during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, between about 76.5 and 74.4 million years ago. It was deposited in alluvial and coastal plain environments, and it is bounded by the nonmarine Oldman Formation below it and the marine Bearpaw Formation above it.
Panoplosaurus is a genus of armoured dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. Few specimens of the genus are known, all from the middle Campanian of the Dinosaur Park Formation, roughly 76 to 75 million years ago. It was first discovered in 1917, and named in 1919 by Lawrence Lambe, named for its extensive armour, meaning "well-armoured lizard". Panoplosaurus has at times been considered the proper name for material otherwise referred to as Edmontonia, complicating its phylogenetic and ecological interpretations, at one point being considered to have existed across Alberta, New Mexico and Texas, with specimens in institutions from Canada and the United States. The skull and skeleton of Panoplosaurus are similar to its relatives, but have a few significant differences, such as the lumpy form of the skull osteoderms, a completely fused shoulder blade, and regularly shaped plates on its neck and body lacking prominent spines. It was a quadrupedal animal, roughly 5 m (16 ft) long and 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) in weight. The skull has a short snout, with a very domed surface, and bony plates directly covering the cheek. The neck had circular groups of plates arranged around the top surface, both the forelimb and hindlimb were about the same length, and the hand may have only included three fingers. Almost the entire surface of the body was covered in plates, osteoderms and scutes of varying sizes, ranging from large elements along the skull and neck, to smaller, round bones underneath the chin and body, to small ossicles that filled in the spaces between other, larger osteoderms.
Prenoceratops, is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period. It was a relatively small dinosaur, reaching 1.3 m (4.3 ft) in length and 20 kg (44 lb) in body mass. Its fossils have been found in the upper Two Medicine Formation in the present-day U.S. state of Montana, in Campanian age rock layers that have been dated to 74.3 million years ago. Fossils were also found in the Oldman Formation in the modern day Canadian province of Alberta, dating to around 77 million years ago.
The Judith River Formation is a fossil-bearing geologic formation in Montana, and is part of the Judith River Group. It dates to the Late Cretaceous, between 79 and 75.3 million years ago, corresponding to the "Judithian" land vertebrate age. It was laid down during the same time period as portions of the Two Medicine Formation of Montana and the Oldman Formation of Alberta. It is an historically important formation, explored by early American paleontologists such as Edward Drinker Cope, who named several dinosaurs from scrappy remains found here on his 1876 expedition. Modern work has found nearly complete skeletons of the hadrosaurid Brachylophosaurus.
The Horseshoe Canyon Formation is a stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southwestern Alberta. It takes its name from Horseshoe Canyon, an area of badlands near Drumheller.
Centrosaurinae is a subfamily of ceratopsid, a group of large quadrupedal ornithischian dinosaur. Centrosaurine fossil remains are known primarily from the northern region of Laramidia but isolated taxa have been found in China and Utah as well.
The Bearpaw Formation, also called the Bearpaw Shale, is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age. It outcrops in the U.S. state of Montana, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and was named for the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana. It includes a wide range of marine fossils, as well as the remains of a few dinosaurs. It is known for its fossil ammonites, some of which are mined in Alberta to produce the organic gemstone ammolite.
The Foremost Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age that underlies much of southern Alberta, Canada. It was named for outcrops in Chin Coulee near the town of Foremost and is known primarily for its dinosaur remains and other fossils.
The Wapiti Formation is a geological formation of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in northwestern Alberta, and northeastern British Columbia, Canada. Its deposition spanned the time interval from the lower Campanian through to the upper Maastrichtian, between approximately 80 and 68 Ma. It was named by G.M. Dawson in 1881, presumably for exposures along the lower part of the Wapiti River and downstream along the Smoky River in Alberta.
Continuoolithus is an oogenus of dinosaur egg found in the late Cretaceous of North America. It is most commonly known from the late Campanian of Alberta and Montana, but specimens have also been found dating to the older Santonian and the younger Maastrichtian. It was laid by an unknown type of theropod. These small eggs are similar to the eggs of oviraptorid dinosaurs, but have a distinctive type of ornamentation.
Foraminacephale is a genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from Late Cretaceous deposits of Canada.
Coronosaurus is a genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaurs which lived in the Late Cretaceous, in the middle Campanian stage. Its remains, two bone beds, were discovered by Phillip J. Currie in the Oldman Formation of Alberta, Canada, and its type and only species, Coronosaurus brinkmani, was first described in 2005, as a new species within the genus Centrosaurus. Later studies questioned the presence of a direct relationship, and in 2012 it was named as a separate genus. Coronosaurus means "crowned lizard", coming from "corona", Latin for crown, and "sauros", Greek for lizard; this name refers to the unique, crown-like shape of the horns on the top of its frill.
Albertadromeus is an extinct genus of orodromine thescelosaurid dinosaur known from the upper part of the Late Cretaceous Oldman Formation of Alberta, Canada. It contains a single species, Albertadromeus syntarsus.
David Christopher Evans is a Canadian palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist who specializes in the evolution and paleobiology of Cretaceous dinosaurs in western North America. He received his B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) and a member of the Royal Society of Canada and currently serves as the Senior Curator and Temerty Chair of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. He is also a faculty member in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. Evans is particularly renowned for his work on the paleobiology of hadrosaur ("duck-billed") dinosaurs and has conducted international research on a wide variety of paleontological topics.