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 | Canada |
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 | |||
Hesperonychus | H. elizabethae | Foot claw | A dromaeosaurid | |||
Paronychodon | Indeterminate | Teeth | A troodontid | |||
Prismatoolithus [9] | 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 [10] | An ornithomimid | |||
Ornithischians of the Oldman Formation | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
Albertaceratops | A. nesmoi | Lower | Single Skull | A ceratopsid | ||
Albertadromeus [11] | 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 [12] | A pachycephalosaurid, once thought to be a species of Stegoceras | |||
Gremlin [13] | 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, once thought to be a species of Stegoceras | ||
Maiasaura | M. peeblesorum | Upper | A hadrosaurid, also known from the Two Medicine Formation. [14] | |||
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 . [11] |
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.
The Lance (Creek) Formation is a division of Late Cretaceous rocks in the western United States. Named after Lance Creek, Wyoming, the microvertebrate fossils and dinosaurs represent important components of the latest Mesozoic vertebrate faunas. The Lance Formation is Late Maastrichtian in age, and shares much fauna with the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and North Dakota, the Frenchman Formation of southwest Saskatchewan, and the lower part of the Scollard Formation of Alberta.
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.
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 Two Medicine Formation is a geological formation, or rock body, in northwestern Montana and southern Alberta that was deposited between 83.5 ± 0.7 Ma and 70.6 ± 3.4 Ma, during Campanian time. It crops out to the east of the Rocky Mountain Overthrust Belt, and the western portion of this formation is folded and faulted while the eastern part, which thins out into the Sweetgrass Arch, is mostly undeformed plains. Below the formation are the nearshore deposits of the Virgelle Sandstone, and above it is the marine Bearpaw Shale. Throughout the Campanian, the Two Medicine Formation was deposited between the western shoreline of the Late Cretaceous Interior Seaway and the eastward advancing margin of the Cordilleran Overthrust Belt. The Two Medicine Formation is mostly sandstone, deposited by rivers and deltas.
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.
The Scollard Formation is an Upper Cretaceous to lower Palaeocene stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southwestern Alberta. Its deposition spanned the time interval from latest Cretaceous to early Paleocene, and it includes sediments that were deposited before, during, and after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event. It is significant for its fossil record, and it includes the economically important coal deposits of the Ardley coal zone.
The Xīnmínbǎo Group is a group of geological formations in north central China. They occur across a large depression between the Altai mountains of Mongolia to the north and the Qilian mountains of the Qinghai Plateau to the south, in the Gōngpóquán (公婆泉) and Suànjǐngzi (算井子) basins, and also in the neighbouring Jiuquan Basin.
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 Maevarano Formation is a Late Cretaceous sedimentary rock formation found in the Mahajanga Province of northwestern Madagascar. It is most likely Maastrichtian in age, and records a seasonal, semiarid environment with rivers that had greatly varying discharges. Notable animal fossils recovered include the theropod dinosaur Majungasaurus, the early bird Vorona, the paravian Rahonavis, the titanosaurian sauropod Rapetosaurus, and the giant frog Beelzebufo.
The Milk River Formation is a sandstone-dominated stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southern Alberta, Canada. It was deposited in near-shore to coastal environments during Late Cretaceous time. Based on uranium-lead dating, palynology and stratigraphic relationships, deposition occurred between ~84.1 and 83.6 Ma.
The Kanguk Formation is a geological formation in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.
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.
The St. Mary River Formation is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous age of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southwestern Alberta and northwesternmost Montana. It was first described from outcrops along the St. Mary River by George Mercer Dawson in 1883, and it takes its name from the river.
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.
Orodrominae is a subfamily of thescelosaurid dinosaurs known from the Cretaceous of North America and Asia.