UALVP locality 76, Watino (Cretaceous of Canada)

Where: Alberta, Canada (55.7° N, 117.6° W: paleocoordinates 59.5° N, 73.8° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Vimy Member (Kaskapau Formation), Early/Lower Turonian (93.5 - 89.3 Ma)

• At Watino, Cretaceous sandstone is exposed at river level and the bone bed material is known only from loose blocks in heavily slumped debris. The nearest well-exposed section is at Hunting Creek, located 8 km NNE of Watino, where the upper part of the Dunvegan Formation and lower part of the overlying Kaskapau Formation are exposed. Using sea-level as a datum, the top of the Dunvegan Formation can be traced southward from Erin Lodge on the Peace River, to Hunting Creek near the Smoky River, and then projected south to Watino where the Dunvegan-Kaskapau contact is predicted to lie about 70 m above the level of the Smoky River. Therefore, rocks exposed near water level in the vicinity of Watino are probably part of the Dunvegan Formation, while those above, including the sediments with the fossil material, are part of the Kaskapau Formation.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: transition zone or lower shoreface; poorly lithified, phosphatic sandstone

• On this basis, it is concluded that the Hunting Creek phosphatic sandstone and the bone-bearing sandstone recovered from slumped debris at Watino are the same bed. Correlation of the phosphatic sandstone bed from Howard Creek to wells to the south and west suggest that the bed marks the top of Kaskapau unit II (Varban & Plint 2005). This bone bed is interpreted as a winnowed lag deposit and suggests a period of increased wave energy at the sea floor, an interpretation supported by the presence of forced-regressive shoreface sandstones at the top of unit II in the British Columbia Foothills. At Hunting Creek, the phosphatic sandstone, which is highly lenticular, forms wave ripples, hummocky cross-stratification and gutter casts, suggestive of at least intermittent storm wave action.

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: chemical, mechanical, acetic

• Repository: Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (UALVP)

Primary reference: R. C. Fox. 1984. lchthyornis (Aves) from the early Turonian (Late Cretaceous) of Alberta. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 21:258-260 [M. Vavrek/M. Vavrek]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 136242: authorized by Shanan Peters, entered by Sharon McMullen on 24.11.2012, edited by Matthew Clapham and Josh Mordaunt

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Chondrichthyes
 Hybodontiformes - Polyacrodontidae
Polyacrodus sp.1 Jaekel 1889 elasmobranch
 Hybodontiformes - Hybodontidae
Meristodonoides cf. rajkovichi1 Case 2001 elasmobranch
 Hybodontiformes - Ptychodontidae
Ptychodus anonymus1 Williston 1900 elasmobranch
 Rajiformes - Rhinobatidae
Rhinobatos incertus1 Cappetta 1973 guitarfish
 Lamniformes - Odontaspididae
"Carcharias aff. striatula" = Eostriatolamia striatula1, Odontaspis watinensis n. sp.1, Johnlongia parvidens1
"Carcharias aff. striatula" = Eostriatolamia striatula1 Dalinkevičius 1935 sand tiger shark
Odontaspis watinensis n. sp.1 Cook et al. 2013 sand tiger shark
Johnlongia parvidens1 Cappetta 1973 sand tiger shark
 Lamniformes - Cretoxyrhinidae
Dallasiella willistoni1 Cappetta and Case 1999 mackerel shark
Cretoxyrhina mantelli1 Agassiz 1835 mackerel shark
 Lamniformes - Anacoracidae
Squalicorax "sp. A"1 Whitley 1939 crow shark
Squalicorax mutabilis2 Siversson and Cook 2018 crow shark
 Lamniformes - Mitsukurinidae
Scapanorhynchus sp.1 Woodward 1889 goblin shark
 Lamniformes - Archaeolamnidae
Archaeolamna ex gr. kopingensis1 Davis 1890 mackerel shark
 Lamniformes - Cardabiodontidae
Cardabiodon aff. ricki1 Siverson 1999 mackerel shark
 Lamniformes - Pseudoscapanorhynchidae
Cretodus semiplicatus1 Agassiz 1843 mackerel shark
 Lamniformes - Otodontidae
Cretalamna ex gr. appendiculata1 Agassiz 1835 mackerel shark
Aves
 Ichthyornithes -
Ichthyornis sp. Marsh 1872 bird
Actinopteri
 Aulopiformes - Enchodontidae
Enchodus cf. shumardi3 Leidy 1856
UALVP 22938
 Aulopiformes - Ichthyotringidae
Apateodus sp.3 Woodward 1901
UALVP 22959
 Aulopiformes - Dercetidae
cf. Dercetoides sp.3 Chalifa 1989
UALVP 22958, 23043