Where: Alberta, Canada (57.0° N, 111.7° W: paleocoordinates 56.5° N, 57.6° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Wabiskaw Member (Clearwater Formation), Early/Lower Albian (112.0 - 109.0 Ma)

• "In the absence of recent radiometric dates for the Wabiskaw Member (Williams et al., 1962), biostratigraphic evidence, based on ammonites from the overlying Clearwater Formation, constrains its minimum age to the lower Albian substage (Jeletzky, 1968; Stelck and Kramers, 1980; Kauffman et al., 1993). Placement of a maximum age on the unit is problematic because no ammonites have been described from the Wabiskaw Member, nor have they been reported from the underlying McMurray Formation. Palynological analyses place the top of the underlying McMurray Formation near the Aptian-Albian boundary (Burden, 1984). This agrees closely with foraminiferal microfaunas recorded from the upper McMurray Formation and lower Clearwater Shale, which also places this contact within the Lower Albian substage (Mellon and Wall, 1956; Caldwell et al., 1993)."

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; medium, glauconitic sandstone

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: concretion

Collected in 1995; reposited in the TMP

Collection methods: quarrying,

• "Owing to its serendipitous discovery using heavy machinery, the skeleton, which is contained in a large concretion, was broken into many large fragments. Reassembly of the concretion revealed that approximately 80 percent of the skeleton is present"

Primary reference: P. S. Druckenmiller and A. P. Russell. 2009. Earliest North American occurrence of Polycotylidae (Sauropterygia: Plesiosauria) from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Clearwater Formation, Alberta, Canada. Journal of Paleontology 83(6):981-989 [M. Carrano/H. Street]more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 102994: authorized by Matthew Carrano, entered by Hallie Street on 21.01.2011

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)