Albertosaurus Bonebed, Dry Island Buffalo Jump (Cretaceous of Canada)

Also known as Albertosaurus Quarry, Big Valley Creek, ABB, RTMP L2204

Where: Alberta, Canada (52.0° N, 112.9° W: paleocoordinates 59.7° N, 84.4° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Tolman Member (Horseshoe Canyon Formation), Early/Lower Maastrichtian (70.6 - 66.0 Ma)

• from transition between Units 4 and 5, HCF "B", should be top of Tolman Mb.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: coarse channel fill; massive, lenticular, fine-grained, ferruginous, intraclastic, silty sandstone

• "a small alluvial channel, 2 m deep and 15 m wide"; "a small fluvial channel oriented approximately NNE-SSW that experienced one or more high-energy flooding events.
• "a lenticular, mixed sandstone-siltstone body…no meso- or large-scale cross-bedding or measurable ripple lamination was observed…one or more centimetre-scale beds of massive, poorly sorted, silty, fine-grained sandstone, with intraformational mudstone-to-ironstone clasts, mollusc stein kerns, and millimetre- to centimetre-scale layers of coalified logs, branches, leaves, and seeds. In some areas, the fossiliferous horizon is heavily cemented with a yellow-brown iron carbonate."

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Preservation: soft parts

Collected by B. Brown & Kaisen, P. Currie in 1910, 1997-2005; reposited in the AMNH, TMP

Collection methods: bulk, quarrying, surface (float), surface (in situ), mechanical, sieve,

Primary reference: B. Brown. 1914. Cretaceous Eocene correlation in New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 25:355-380 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 55363: authorized by Matthew Carrano, entered by Kaitlin Maguire on 12.10.2005, edited by Matthew Carrano and Patricia Holroyd

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Gastropoda
 Architaenioglossa - Viviparidae
Viviparus prudentius2 snail
TMP 1999.50.121, 153, 165, 2004.56.69
Gnathostomata
  -
Osteichthyes indet.4 bony fish
TMP 2003.45.63, 2001.45.93; 3 different sizes
Osteichthyes
 Acipenseriformes - Acipenseridae
Acipenseridae indet.2 Bonaparte 1831 ray-finned fish
TMP 2005.45.64
Amphibia
 Salientia - Palaeobatrachidae
? Palaeobatrachus occidentalis2 Estes and Sanchíz 1982 frog
TMP 2000.45.38, 2000.45.101
 Caudata - Urodela
Scapherpetontidae indet.2 Auffenberg and Goin 1959 salamander
TMP 1999.50.131
Mammalia
 Theriamorpha -
Metatheria indet.2 metatherian
Reptilia
 Squamata -
Borioteiioidea indet.2 Nydam et al. 2007 squamates
TMP 2003.45.72
 Ornithischia - Ankylosauridae
Ankylosauridae indet.2 Brown 1908 ankylosaurid
TMP 2000.45.37, 2003.45.55
 Ornithischia - Ceratopsidae
Ceratopsidae indet.2 Marsh 1888 ceratopsid
TMP 1999.50.121, 1999.50.164, 2000.45.36
 Ornithischia - Hadrosauridae
Hypacrosaurus altispinus2 Brown 1913 lambeosaurine
TMP 2002.45.54
 Theropoda - Alvarezsauridae
Albertonykus borealis n. gen. n. sp.4
Albertonykus borealis n. gen. n. sp.4 Longrich and Currie 2009 Alberta claw
TMP 2001.45.8, 12, 31, 51-52, 61, 85-86, 91, 97-98
 Theropoda - Troodontidae
cf. Troodon sp.3 Leidy 1856 maniraptoran
TMP 2003.45.58, 2000.45.10, 2000.45.24, 2000.45.41, 2000.45.90, 2000.45.91, 2001.45.81, 2001.45.81, 2002.45.48, 2003.45.57
 Theropoda - Dromaeosauridae
Richardoestesia cf. gilmorei3 Currie et al. 1990 maniraptoran
TMP 2000.45.80, 2001.45.82, 2002.45.49, 2002.45.53
Atrociraptor marshalli2 Currie and Varricchio 2004 maniraptoran
TMP 1999.050.0117, 2003.45.52, 2000.45.35, 2000.45.203, 2003.45.49
Dromaeosaurinae indet.2 Matthew and Brown 1922 maniraptoran
TMP 1999.050.0116, 1998.063.0032, 1998.63.071, 1998.64.017, 2000.45.040, 2000.45.082, 2000.45.102, 2001.45.083, 2002.45.050, 2003.45.82, 2003.45.102, 2003.45.83, 2003.45.50, 2003.45.60
 Theropoda -
Avialae indet.2 Gauthier 1986 avialan
TMP 2000.45.52, 2000.45.57
 Theropoda - Ornithomimidae
Ornithomimidae indet.2 Marsh 1890 ornithomimid
TMP 2001.45.85, 2004.56.64, 1999.50.127, 2005.50.60
 Theropoda - Tyrannosauridae
Tyrannosauridae indet.1 Osborn 1906 tyrannosaurid
Albertosaurus sarcophagus1 Osborn 1905 Alberta lizard
AMNH 5218, 5226-5229, 5231-5234; many TMP specimens
 Choristodera -
Champsosaurus sp.2 Cope 1876 choristodere
TMP 1999.50.138
Actinopteri
 Holostei -
Holostei "indet. A"2
TMP 2005.50.64
 Amiiformes - Amiidae
Amiidae indet.2 Huxley 1861 bowfin
TMP 2003.45.62
Cyclurus sp.2 Agassiz 1839 bowfin
TMP 1999.50.144, 1999.50.146, 1999.50.148
 Ellimmichthyiformes -
Horseshoeichthys armaserratus n. gen. n. sp.5 Newbrey et al. 2010
TMP 2001.045.0093
 Ellimmichthyiformes - Sorbinichthyidae
Sorbinichthyidae indet.2 Bannikov and Bacchia 2000
gen. et sp. nov.