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Dinosaur Park Formation

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.

Research history
The Dinosaur Park Formation has been a significant source of terrestrial vertebrate fossils for over a century. The first recorded account of fossils was in 1871 by the priest Jean-Baptiste L'Heureux who was shown bones of the "grandfather of the buffalo" by the Blackfoot Confederacy he was living with, though these notes were never published. Official reports of dinosaur bones in western Canada were reported by George Mercer Dawson in 1874 from southern Saskatchewan and Alberta along the Milk River. Further discoveries by Dawson and his colleagues of the Geological Survey of Canada continued in the 1880s, including the 1884 discovery by Joseph Burr Tyrrell of the skull of a theropod identified as Laelaps by American palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope but named in 1905 as Albertosaurus by American palaeontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn. In 1889 rich fossil beds in the areas of Deadlodge Canyon and Berry Creek were found by Thomas Chesmer Weston along the Red Deer River. The areas along the Red Deer River would be more completely surveyed by Canadian palaeontologist Lawrence Lambe from 1897 until 1901, when he, along with Osborn, described the fossils found in what was then considered to be the Belly River Formation of mid-Cretaceous age. == Geological setting ==
Geological setting
, Lambeosaurus, Styracosaurus, Scolosaurus, Prosaurolophus, Panoplosaurus, and a herd of Styracosaurus'' in the background The Dinosaur Park Formation is composed of sediments that were derived from the erosion of the mountains to the west. It was deposited on an alluvial to coastal plain by river systems that flowed eastward and southeastward to the Bearpaw Sea, a large inland sea that was part of the Western Interior Seaway. That sea gradually inundated the adjacent coastal plain, depositing the marine shales of the Bearpaw Formation on top of the Dinosaur Park Formation. The Dinosaur Park Formation is about thick at Dinosaur Park. The lower portion of the formation was laid down in fluvial channel environments and consists primarily of fine- to medium-grained, crossbedded sandstones. The upper portion, which was deposited in overbank and floodplain environments, consists primarily of massive to laminated, organic-rich mudstones with abundant root traces, and thin beds of bentonite. The Lethbridge Coal Zone, which consists of several seams of low-rank coal interbedded with mudstones and siltstones, marks the top of the formation. The sediments of the Dinosaur Park Formation are similar to those of the underlying Oldman Formation and they were originally included in that formation. The two formations are separated by a regional disconformity, however, and are distinguished by petrographic and sedimentologic differences. In addition, articulated skeletal remains and bonebeds are rare in the Oldman Formation but abundant in the Dinosaur Park Formation. == Biostratigraphy ==
Biostratigraphy
The Dinosaur Park Formation can be divided into at least two distinct faunas. The lower part of the formation is characterized by the abundance of Corythosaurus and Centrosaurus. This group of species is replaced higher in the formation by a different ornithischian fauna characterized by the presence of Lambeosaurus and Styracosaurus. The appearance of several new, rare species of ornithischian at the very top of the formation may indicate that a third distinct fauna had replaced the second during the transition into younger, non-Dinosaur Park sediments, at the same time an inland sea transgresses onto land, but there are fewer remains here. An unnamed pachyrhinosaur, Vagaceratops irvinensis, and Lambeosaurus magnicristatus may be more common in this third fauna. ==Paleofauna==
Paleofauna
Dinosaurs Remains of the following dinosaurs have been found in the formation: Ornithischians Remains of the following ornithischians have been found in the formation: Ankylosaurs Numerous specimens that cannot be definitively assigned to ankylosaurs are known from the formation, including fragmentary cranial, dental, postcranial, and armour material. Ornithopods At least one indeterminate thescelosaurid specimen has been recovered from the formation. In a 2001 review of hadrosaur eggshell and hatchling material from the Dinosaur Park Formation, Darren H. Tanke and M. K. Brett-Surman concluded that hadrosaurs nested in both the ancient upland and lowlands of the formation's depositional environment. Tyrannosaurs Other reptiles Choristoderes Choristoderes, or champsosaurs, were aquatic reptiles. Small examples looked like lizards, while larger types were superficially similar to crocodilians. Remains of the following Choristoderes have been found in the formation: • Champsosaurus (at least 3 species) • Cteniogenys sp. cf. antiquus (possibly another genus) Crocodylians Remains of the following Crocodylians have been found in the formation: • AlbertochampsaLeidyosuchus • at least 1 unnamed taxon Lizards Remains of the following lizards have been found in the formation: • HelodermatidsLabrodioctesNecrosauridsParasaniwaTeiidsGlyptogenysSocognathusVaranidsPalaeosaniwaXenosaurids • ?Exostinus Plesiosaurs Remains of the following Plesiosaurs have been found in the formation: Pterosaurs Remains of the following pterosaurs have been found in the formation: Turtles Remains of the following turtles have been found in the formation: Mammals mammals known from the Dinosaur Park Formation: Mesodma primaeva (top left), Alphadon halleyi (top right), Gypsonictops lewisi (bottom left) and an indeterminate therian, interpreted here as an hypothetical early placental (bottom right) Remains of the following mammals have been found in the formation: Multituberculata Metatherians Eutherians Fish Remains of the following fish have been found in the formation: • ChondrichthyansCretorectolobus olsoni (a carpet shark) • Eucrossorhinus microcuspidatus (a carpet shark) • Ischyrhiza mira (a sclerorhynchid) • Meristodonoides montanensis (a hybodont shark) • Myledaphus bipartitus (a ray) • Protoplatyrhina renae (a guitarfish) • indeterminate orectolobid • "Edaphodontidae" indet. (a chimaera) • unnamed sturgeon • unnamed paddlefish • Holostean fish • Arotus hieroglyphusLepisosteus occidentalis (the gar) • unnamed bowfin • at least 2 other holosteans • Teleost fish • Acronichthys sp. (an otophysan) • Archaeosiilik sp. (a pike) • Belonostomus longirostrisCretophareodus alberticus (an osteoglossomorph) • Coriops amnicolusDercetis cf. magnificusSivulliusalmo sp. (a salmonid) Invertebrates Remains of the following invertebrates have been found in the formation: • Insects • Cordualadensa acorni (a cavilabiatid dragonfly) • Freshwater bivalves • FusconaiaLampsilisSphaerium (2 species) • Freshwater gastropods • Campeloma (2 species) • ElimiaGoniobasis (3 species) • HydrobiaLioplacodes (2 species) • Marine Invertebrates • Placenticeras sp. • Palaeonephrops? (a clawed lobster) == Flora ==
Flora
Plant body fossils The following plant body fossils have been found in the formation: • various ferns • Equisetum (Equisetaceae) • Gymnosperms • Platyspiroxylon (Cupressaceae) • Podocarpoxylon (Podocarpaceae) • Elatocladus (Taxodiaceae) • Sequoia (Taxodiaceae) • Sequoiaxylon (Taxodiaceae) • Taxodioxylon (Taxodiaceae) • Ginkgos • BaieraGinkgoitesAngiosperms • Artocarpus (Moraceae) • Cercidiphyllum (Cercidiphyllaceae) • Dombeyopsis (Sterculiaceae) • Menispermites (Menispermaceae) • Pistia (Araceae) • Platanus (Platanaceae) • Vitis (Vitaceae) • Trapa (Trapaceae) Palynomorphs Palynomorphs are organic-walled microfossils, like spores, pollen, and algae. The following palynomorphs have been found in the formation: • Unknown producers • at least 8 species • Fungi • at least 35 taxaChlorophyta (green algae and blue-green algae) • at least 12 speciesPyrrhophyta (dinoflagellates, a type of marine algae) • unassigned cysts • Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) • Anthocerotophyta (hornworts) • at least 5 species • Marchantiophyta (liverworts) • at least 14 species • Bryophyta (mosses) • at least 5 species • LycopodiophytaLycopodiaceae (club mosses) • at least 11 species • Selaginellaceae (small club mosses) • at least 6 species • Isoetaceae (quillworts) • at least 1 species • PolypodiophytaOsmundaceae (cinnamon ferns) • at least 6 species • Schizaeaceae (climbing ferns) • at least 20 species • Gleicheniaceae (Gleichenia and allies; coral ferns) • at least 5 species • Cyatheaceae (Cyathea and allies) • at least 4 species • Dicksoniaceae (Dicksonia and allies) • at least 3 species • Polypodiaceae (ferns) • at least 4 species • Matoniaceae • at least 1 species • Marsileaceae • at least 1 species • Pinophyta (gymnosperms) • Cycadaceae (cycads) • at least 3 species • Caytoniaceae • at least 1 species • Pinaceae (pines) • at least 4 species • Cupressaceae (cypresses) • at least 3 species • Podocarpaceae (Podocarpus and allies) • at least 4 species • Cheirolepidiaceae • at least 2 species • Ephedraceae (Mormon teas) • at least 6 species • Unknown gymnosperms: at least 3 species • Magnoliophyta (angiosperms) • Magnoliopsida (dicots) • Buxaceae (boxwood) • at least 1 species • Gunneraceae (gunneras) • at least 1 species • Salicaceae (willows, cottonwood, quaking aspen) • at least 1 species • Droseraceae (sundews) • at least 1 species • Olacaceae (tallowwood) • at least 2 species • Loranthaceae (showy mistletoes) • at least 1 species • Sapindaceae (soapberry) • at least 1 species • Aceraceae (maples) • at least 1 species • Proteaceae (proteas) • at least 9 species • Compositae (sunflowers) • at least 1 species • Fagaceae (beeches, oaks, chestnuts) • at least 2 species • Betulaceae (birches, alders) • at least 1 species • Ulmaceae (elms) • at least 1 species • Chenopodiaceae (goosefoots) • at least 1 species • Liliopsida (monocots) • Liliaceae (lilies) • at least 6 species • Cyperaceae (sedges) • at least 1 species • Sparganiaceae (bur-reeds) • possibly 1 species • Unknown angiosperms: at least 88 species == See also ==
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