Paleooecology of the Judith River Formation (Campanian) of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada: Evidence from vertebrate microfossil localities

Brinkman, Donald B.

doi:10.1016/0031-0182(90)90203-j

Cited by 136 publications

(129 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Small incomplete choristoderan jaw elements have been reported from the Oldman and the Dinosaur Park formations of Alberta, Canada, in association with Champsosaurus and Leidyosuchus (Brinkman, 1990;Gao and Brinkman, 2005;Gao and Fox, 1998) The affinities of these specimens (e.g. UALVP29794; UALVP29795) are uncertain, but the reptiles from which they came, if adult, would have been of similar size to Portuguese (Guimarota) specimens of Cteniogenys (e.g.…”

Section: Paleocene-eocenementioning

confidence: 99%

Choristoderes and the freshwater assemblages of Laurasia

Matsumoto¹,

Evans²

2010

J. iber. geol.

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Choristoderes are freshwater aquatic diapsid reptiles of uncertain phylogenetic position. Although the lineage probably diverged from other diapsids in the Permo-Triassic, choristoderes apparently never reached Gondwana. Within Laurasia, however, they have been recovered from Japan, China, Mongolia, Trans-Baikal Russia, Central Asia, Western Europe, and North America, reaching extreme northern latitudes. Setting aside controversial Triassic records, their known temporal range currently extends from the Middle Jurassic (Britain, Kyrgyzstan) to the Miocene (Czech Republic). However, although small choristoderes are known to span the entirety of this period, the larger, more derived neochoristoderes are recorded only from the Early Cretaceous through to the earliest Eocene. The gavial-like neochoristodere Champsosaurus is the most familiar taxon, characterised by large size, a long rostrum and flared temporal fenestrae, but research over the last three decades has revealed many new genera and exposed an unexpected diversity in terms of body size (small to relatively large), neck length (long v. short) and skull morphology (longirostrine v. brevirostrine, open v. closed lower temporal fenestrae). Typically choristoderes occur as part of a mesic assemblage that includes fish, lizards, mammals, turtles, frogs, salamanders, small dinosaurs and, usually, crocodiles. At maturity, Jurassic choristoderes were generally smaller than co-occuring crocodiles and were relatively unspecialized postcranially. The Early Cretaceous of Asia saw a dramatic diversification of choristoderes, including the appearance of much larger neochoristoderes. Perhaps significantly, the relevant Asian horizons (e.g. Yixian Formation, China; Okurodani and Kuwajima formations, Japan) yield no crocodiles. In Late Cretaceous and Paleogene horizons however, across Euramerica, large gavial-like neochoristoderes came to share freshwater ecosystems with a diversity of crocodiles, the neochoristoderes apparently occupying a specialist (gavial-like) piscivorous niche as long as it was available and resources were adequate.

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Section: Paleocene-eocenementioning

confidence: 99%

Choristoderes and the freshwater assemblages of Laurasia

Matsumoto¹,

Evans²

2010

J. iber. geol.

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“…In contrast, isolated microfossils document the presence of a rich fauna of small, terrestrial vertebrates. This fauna included amphibians, squamates, birds, mammals (52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58), and, as shown here, small dromaeosaurids. Only a small percentage of these taxa are known from associated remains, demonstrating the existence of a strong taphonomic bias against the preservation of small vertebrate skeletons (2,3,59).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

A microraptorine (Dinosauria–Dromaeosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of North America

Longrich

Currie

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

105

118

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The fossil assemblages of the Late Cretaceous of North America are dominated by large-bodied dinosaur species. Associated skeletons of small dinosaurs are exceedingly rare, and small (<10 kg) carnivorous theropods have not previously been reported from these beds. Here, we describe a small dromaeosaurid from the 75-millionyear-old Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada. Hesperonychus elizabethae gen. et sp. nov. is represented by a pelvic girdle from an animal weighing Ϸ1,900 g. Despite its size, the pubes and ilia are coossified, indicating that the animal was somatically mature. This is the smallest carnivorous, nonavian dinosaur known from North America. Phylogenetic analysis of Hesperonychus reveals that it is not closely related to previously described North American dromaeosaurids. Instead, Hesperonychus is a member of the dromaeosaurid clade Microraptorinae, a group containing the 4-winged Microraptor and the feathered Sinornithosaurus, both from the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Group of China. Hesperonychus is the youngest known member of this lineage, extending the temporal range of the clade by 45 million years, and it is the first microraptorine known from North America, providing further evidence for an affinity between the dinosaur faunas of North America and Asia. Study of fossil collections from the Dinosaur Park and Oldman formations of Alberta has revealed numerous isolated bones of small, basal dromaeosaurids, which are tentatively referred to Hesperonychus. These fossils suggest that small dromaeosaurids were a significant component of the carnivore community in this Late Cretaceous biota.Campanian ͉ Dinosaur Park Formation ͉ microraptorinae ͉ theropoda

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“…, Brinkman 1990;Eberth 1990;Eberth and Currie 2005). Building upon work started in the mid-1960s by field crews from the University of Kansas (Lillegraven 1969), the University of Alberta (e.g., Dodson 1971;Fox 1976), and the University of Pennsylvania (Dodson 1983) in the nonmarine Late Cretaceous of southern Alberta, in the summer of 1985 Don Brinkman began (Brinkman 1986) what would become a career-long research program to find, collect, screen wash, and study vertebrate microfossil localities.…”

Section: Discovery Documentation Excavation and Interpretation Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much of Don's interest in vertebrate microfossil localities has focused on using the recovered fossils and the sedimentological and taphonomic settings of localities (see also Eberth 1990) to document relative abundances, temporal, and geographic distributions of taxa and to infer palaeocommunity structures. The broad aim of his work being to better understand palaeoecosystems through the Late Cretaceous and Palaeocene in the Western Interior (e.g., Brinkman 1986Brinkman , 1987Brinkman , 1990Brinkman , 2008Brinkman et al 1998Brinkman et al , 2004Brinkman et al ,2005aBrinkman et al , 2005bBrinkman et al , 2013aBrinkman et al , 2014Peng et al 2001;Brinkman and Neuman 2002;Sankey et al 2002Sankey et al , 2005Jamniczky et al 2003Jamniczky et al , 2008Larson et al 2010;Cook et al 2014b). …”

Section: Discovery Documentation Excavation and Interpretation Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That improved level of understanding is implicit in the title of an edited volume, Dinosaur Provincial Park: A Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed , published in conjunction with the museum's 20th anniversary. Other examples of the museum's interest in palaeoecology include publications by Don Brinkman and colleagues that used vertebrate microfossil localities to investigate community structures and relative abundances of taxa within communities at local and regional levels (e.g., Brinkman 1986Brinkman , 1990Brinkman , 2008Eberth and Brinkman 1997;Brinkman et al 2004Brinkman et al , 2005bBrinkman et al , 2013aBrinkman et al , 2014, Johnston and Hendy's (2005) examination of mollusc communities within the Dinosaur Park and Oldman formations of DPP, and the synthetic work of Eberth et al (2013) that showed dinosaur assemblage zones in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation were associated with particular palaeoenvironmental conditions and that changes in the latter, driven largely by long-term climatic changes, affected the composition of dinosaur assemblages through time. Even papers of a more descriptive nature almost invariably include at least some palaeoecological component, whether it be inferences about food preferences in marsupials (e.g., Fox and Naylor 1986), habitat partitioning among sympatric species of amphibians (e.g., Gardner 2000), temperature tolerances of marine turtles (e.g., , and so forth.…”

Section: Palaeoecology and Palaeobiogeographymentioning

confidence: 99%

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