Stratigraphy and depositional environments of the upper Fox Hills and lower Hell Creek Formations at the Concordia Hadrosaur Site in northwestern South Dakota

Colson, Mary; Colson, R. O.; Nellermoe, Ron

doi:10.2113/39.2.93

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The interpretations proposed here support the hypothesis that edmontosaurs were gregarious for at least part of their lives (Tedesco et al 1998;Chadwick et al 2006;Gangloff and Fiorillo 2010;Eberth et al 2013). Additionally, since similar monodominant bonebeds of Edmontosaurus annectens are known from the upper Maastrichtian of the western United States (Tedesco et al 1998;Colson et al 2004;Chadwick et al 2006), our data for Edmontosaurus regalis suggest that gregariousness might have been a life-history strategy common to all species of the genus Edmontosaurus.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Edmontosaurus-dominated bonebeds are notably common, and they have been reported from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta (Evans et al 2003;Eberth and Bell 2014;Bell and Campione 2014), the Hell Creek Formation of the northern Great Plains (Christians 1991;Colson et al 2004), the Lance Formation of Wyoming (Tedesco et al 1998;Chadwick et al 2006), as well as the Prince Creek Formation of northern Alaska (Gangloff and Fiorillo 2010). Despite their widespread occurrence in the Upper Cretaceous of North America, relatively few of the reported monodominant Edmontosaurus bonebeds have been documented or described in detail in the scientific literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Hadrosaurid (Edmontosaurus) bonebeds from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Horsethief Member) at Drumheller, Alberta, Canada: geology, preliminary taphonomy, and significance

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Three monodominant hadrosaurid bonebeds in the Horsethief Member of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (uppermost Campanian) in southern Alberta, Canada, are documented. Each bonebed is hosted by a decimetre-thick deposit of poorly sorted and graded organic-fragment-rich mudstone. These fossil deposits are interpreted as having been carried and deposited by debris flows or hyperconcentrated mass sediment flows initiated by overbank flooding from local channels. Each bonebed is dominated (>50% of identifiable elements) by the disarticulated to occasionally associated remains of hadrosaurine hadrosaurids, inferred to be Edmontosaurus regalis. The majority of hadrosaurid elements at two of the sites (Bleriot Ferry and Prehistoric Park) are from large, presumably adult-sized individuals, whereas the majority of elements from the Fox Coulee site are from subadults and juveniles. Fossil elements from all the sites exhibit similar taphonomic signatures suggestive of a high degree of biostratinomic modification including: (i) thorough disarticulation of carcasses, (ii) a large amount of breakage, (iii) modest amounts of size sorting, and (iv) minimum to modest occurrences of abrasion, and scratch and tooth marks. These signatures indicate that carcasses were exposed for significant amounts of time on the floodplain, where they rotted, were scavenged and trampled, and were exposed to moving water prior to final burial. The size of each bonebed together with the density of bones suggest that the biocoenoses comprised large groups of hadrosaurids, and bone size distributions suggest the possibility of age-segregated populations. The monodominant nature of the assemblages combined with homogenous taphonomic signatures within and between sites suggests that these bonebed assemblages are best interpreted as the result of mass kills rather than attrition, with recurring tropical storm-induced coastal-plain flooding postulated as a likely mechanism for what killed and eventually buried these dinosaurs. Résumé :Trois lits à ossements à monodominance d'hadrosauridés du Membre de Horsethief de la Formation de Horseshoe Canyon (Campanien sommital) dans le sud de l'Alberta (Canada) sont documentés. Chaque lit à ossements se trouve dans un dépôt d'épaisseur décimétrique de mudstone mal classé et granoclassé riche en fragments organiques. Ces gisements fossilifères sont interprétés comme ayant été transportés et déposés par des coulées de débris ou des coulées de masse de sédiments hyperconcentrées initiées par l'inondation des berges par des chenaux locaux. Chaque lit à ossements est dominé (>50 % des éléments identifiables) par les restes désarticulés à occasionnellement associés d'hadrosauridés hadrosaurinés, présumés être d'Edmontosaurus regalis. La majorité des éléments d'hadrosauridé à deux des sites (Bleriot Ferry et Prehistoric Park) proviennent de grands individus présumés être de taille adulte, alors que la majorité des éléments du site de Fox Coulee proviennent d'individus subadultes et juvéniles. Les éléments fossile...

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hadrosaurid (Edmontosaurus) bonebeds from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Horsethief Member) at Drumheller, Alberta, Canada: geology, preliminary taphonomy, and significance

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nellermoe has since given some of the Edmontosaurus specimens to other scientists for isotopic analysis 5 , but his group has otherwise published little beyond some geological background 6 .…”

Section: Bone Bountymentioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeontology: School of rock

Dalton¹

2008

Nature

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Postcranial changes are more sparsely documented. Although bonebed assemblages have the potential to document a range of body sizes for E. annectens, none of these have been formally described with respect to gross skeletal morphology (Colson et al 2004;Stanton Thomas and Carlson 2004;Wosik 2018). Instead, most information on postcranial ontogenetic changes in E. annectens is based upon exceptionally preserved articu-is tentatively referred to Edmontosaurus annectens.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A juvenile cf. Edmontosaurus annectens (Ornithischia, Hadrosauridae) femur documents a poorly represented growth stage for this taxon

Farke¹,

Yip

2019

Vert. Anat. Morph. Palaeo.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A nearly complete, but isolated, femur of a small hadrosaurid from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana is tentatively referred to Edmontosaurus annectens. At 28 cm long, the element can be classified as that from an “early juvenile” individual, approximately 24 percent of the maximum known femur length for this species. Specimens from this size range and age class have not been described previously for E. annectens. Notable trends with increasing body size include increasingly distinct separation of the femoral head and greater trochanter, relative increase in the size of the cranial trochanter, a slight reduction in the relative breadth of the fourth trochanter, and a relative increase in the prominence of the cranial intercondylar groove. The gross profile of the femoral shaft is fairly consistent between the smallest and largest individuals. Although an ontogenetic change from relatively symmetrical to an asymmetrical shape in the fourth trochanter has been suggested previously, the new juvenile specimen shows an asymmetric fourth trochanter. Thus, there may not be a consistent ontogenetic pattern in trochanteric morphology. An isometric relationship between femoral circumference and femoral length is confirmed for Edmontosaurus. Overall ontogenetic trends in the femur of Edmontosaurus are concordant with patterns seen in other Hadrosauridae, supporting a fairly conserved pattern of development for this element within the clade.

show abstract

Stratigraphy and depositional environments of the upper Fox Hills and lower Hell Creek Formations at the Concordia Hadrosaur Site in northwestern South Dakota

Cited by 18 publications

References 17 publications

Hadrosaurid (Edmontosaurus) bonebeds from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Horsethief Member) at Drumheller, Alberta, Canada: geology, preliminary taphonomy, and significance

Hadrosaurid (Edmontosaurus) bonebeds from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Horsethief Member) at Drumheller, Alberta, Canada: geology, preliminary taphonomy, and significance

Palaeontology: School of rock

A juvenile cf. Edmontosaurus annectens (Ornithischia, Hadrosauridae) femur documents a poorly represented growth stage for this taxon

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About