Bearpaw Formation
The Bearpaw Formation, also called the Bearpaw Shale, is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age. It outcrops in the U.S. state of Montana, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and was named for the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana.[2] It includes a wide range of marine fossils, as well as the remains of a few dinosaurs. It is known for its fossil ammonites, some of which are mined in Alberta to produce the organic gemstone ammolite.[3]
| Bearpaw Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Campanian-Maastrichtian, | |
Contact (red arrow) between the underlying marine shales of the Bearpaw Formation and the coastal Horseshoe Canyon Formation. | |
| Type | Geological formation |
| Unit of | Montana Group |
| Underlies | Horseshoe Canyon Formation, St. Mary River Formation, Eastend Formation, and others |
| Overlies | Dinosaur Park Formation, Judith River Formation |
| Thickness | Up to 350 meters (1,150 ft)[1] |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Shale, claystone |
| Other | Siltstone, sandstone, concretionary beds |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 48°15′0″N 109°30′0″W / 48.25000°N 109.50000°W |
| Region | Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana |
| Country | Canada, United States |
| Extent | Northern Montana to central Alberta and southern Saskatchewan |
| Type section | |
| Named for | Bear Paw Mountains, Montana |
| Named by | Hatcher and Stanton, 1903[2] |
Lithology and depositional environment edit
The formation was deposited in the Bearpaw Sea, which was part of the Western Interior Seaway that advanced and then retreated across the region during Campanian time.[4] It is composed primarily of dark grey shales, claystones, silty claystones and siltstones, with subordinate silty sandstones. It also includes bedded and nodular concretions (both calcareous and ironstone concretions) and thin beds of bentonite. As the seaway retreated toward the southwest, the marine sediments of the Bearpaw became covered by the deltaic and coastal plain sediments of the overlying formations.[1][5][6]
Relationship to other units edit
The Bearpaw Formation conformably overlies the Dinosaur Park Formation of the Belly River Group in central Alberta, and the Judith River Formation in the plains to the east and Montana. It is overlain by the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in central Alberta; by the Blood Reserve Formation and the St. Mary River Formation in southern Alberta; by the Eastend Formation in southern Saskatchewan; and by the Fox Hills Formation in Montana. To the east, it merges into the Pierre Shale.[1]
Fauna edit
Color key
| Notes Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; |
The Bearpaw Formation is famous for its well-preserved ammonite fossils. These include Placenticeras meeki, Placenticeras intercalare, Hoploscaphites, and Sphenodiscus, the baculite Baculites compressus and the bivalve Inoceramus, some of which are mined south-central Alberta to produce the organic gemstone ammolite.[3]
Other fossils found in this formation include many types of shellfish, bony fish, sharks, rays, birds, and marine reptiles like mosasaurs such as Prognathodon overtoni and Plioplatecarpus peckensis, plesiosaurs such as Dolichorhynchops herschelensis, Albertonectes and Nakonanectes, and sea turtles. Dinosaur remains have occasionally been discovered, presumably from carcasses that washed out to sea.[7][8]
Dinosaurs edit
| Dinosaurs from the Bearpaw Formation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Member | Material | Notes | Images |
| Brachylophosaurus[7] | Indeterminate[7] | |||||
| Daspletosaurus | ||||||
| Edmontonia[7] | Indeterminate[7] | |||||
| cf. Kritosaurus | "Nearly complete skull and postcranium."[9] | A hadrosaurid | ||||
| Prosaurolophus[7][10] | P. maximus[10] | Three juvenile specimens[10] | A Saurolophinae hadrosaurid, also known from the Dinosaur Park and Two Medicine Formations | |||
| Stegoceras[7] | Indeterminate[7] | |||||
Plesiosaurs edit
| Plesiosaurs from the Bearpaw Formation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Member | Material | Notes | Images |
| Albertonectes[11] | A. vanderveldei | Alberta | A complete, well-preserved postcranial specimen, missing only the skull. | An elasmosaurid plesiosaur. Albertonectes has the longest neck of any known plesiosaur. | ||
| Nakonanectes[12] | N. bradti | Montana | A nearly complete skeleton including the skull. | A small elasmosaurid plesiosaur with an unusually short neck. | ||
| Terminonatator[13] | T. ponteixensis | Saskatchewan | A partially articulated incomplete skeleton, including a skull. | An elasmosaurid plesiosaur. | ||
| Dolichorhynchops[14] | D. herschelensis | Saskatchewan | An incomplete skeleton | One of the latest known polycotylids. | ||
Mosasaurs edit
| Mosasaurs from the Bearpaw Formation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Member | Material | Notes | Images |
| Mosasaurus[15] | M. missouriensis | Alberta and Montana | Several specimens, including a near complete skeleton with stomach contents | A large mosasaurine mosasaur. | ||
| M. conodon | Saskatchewan | A large mosasaurine mosasaur. | ||||
| Prognathodon[16] | P. overtoni | Alberta | Several exceptionally preserved specimens | A large mosasaurine mosasaur. | ||
| Plioplatecarpus[17] | P. primaevus | Saskatchewan | A widespread genus of plioplatecarpine mosasaur. | |||
| P. peckensis | Montana | |||||
| Tylosaurus[18] | T. saskatchewanensis | Saskatchewan | A single semi-complete skeleton | A large tylosaurine mosasaur. | ||
Turtles edit
| Turtles from the Bearpaw Formation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Member | Material | Notes | Images |
| Nichollsemys | N. baieri | Alberta | Known from skulls | A basal chelonioid sea turtle. | ||
References edit
- ^ a b c Glass, D.J. (editor) 1997. Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, vol. 4, Western Canada including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Calgary, 1423 p. on CD-ROM. ISBN 0-920230-23-7.
- ^ a b Hatcher, J.B. and Stanton, T.W., 1903. The stratigraphic position of the Judith River beds and their correlation with the Belly River beds. Science, no. 5, v. 18, p. 211-212.
- ^ a b Mychaluk, K.A.; Levinson, A.A. & Hall, R.H. (PDF). Gems & Gemology. 37 (1): 4–25. doi:10.5741/GEMS.37.1.4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2015-01-11.
- ^ . Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
- ^ Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (1994). . Compiled by Mossop, G.D. and Shetsen, I. Archived from the original on 2016-07-01. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
- ^ Wall, J.H., Sweet, A.R. and Hills, L.V. 1971. Paleoecology of the Bearpaw and contiguous Upper Cretaceous formations in the C.P.O.G. Strathmore well, southern Alberta. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 19, no. 3, p. 691-702.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Cretaceous, North America)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 574-588. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
- ^ . Archived from the original on 2007-08-21. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
- ^ "Table 20.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 441.
- ^ a b c Eamon T. Drysdale; François Therrien; Darla K. Zelenitsky; David B. Weishampel; David C. Evans (2019). "Description of juvenile specimens of Prosaurolophus maximus (Hadrosauridae: Saurolophinae) from the Upper Cretaceous Bearpaw Formation of southern Alberta, Canada, reveals ontogenetic changes in crest morphology". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 38 (6): e1547310. doi:10.1080/02724634.2018.1547310. S2CID 109440173.
- ^ Kubo, T.; Mitchell, M. T.; Henderson, D. M. (2012). "Albertonectes vanderveldei, a new elasmosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (3): 557–572. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.658124. S2CID 129500470.
- ^ Serratos, Danielle J.; Druckenmiller, Patrick; Benson, Roger B.J. (2017). "A new elasmosaurid (Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from the Bearpaw Shale (Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian) of Montana demonstrates multiple evolutionary reductions of neck length within Elasmosauridae". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 37 (2): e1278608. doi:10.1080/02724634.2017.1278608. S2CID 132717607.
- ^ Sato, Tamaki (2003). "Terminonatator ponteixensis, a new elasmosaur (Reptilia:Sauropterygia) from the Upper Cretaceous of Saskatchewan". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 23 (1): 89–103. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2003)23[89:TPANES]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 130373116.
- ^ Sato, Tamaki (1 September 2005). "A new Polycotylid Plesiosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Upper Cretaceous Bearpaw Formation in Saskatchewan, Canada". Journal of Paleontology. 79 (5): 969. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079[0969:ANPPRS]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 131128997.
- ^ Takuya Konishi; Michael Newbrey; Michael Caldwell (2014). "A small, exquisitely preserved specimen of Mosasaurus missouriensis (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from the upper Campanian of the Bearpaw Formation, western Canada, and the first stomach contents for the genus". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 34 (4): 802–819. doi:10.1080/02724634.2014.838573. S2CID 86325001.
- ^ Konishi, Takuya; Brinkman, Donald; Massare, Judy A.; Caldwell, Michael W. (2011-09-01). "New exceptional specimens of Prognathodon overtoni (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from the upper Campanian of Alberta, Canada, and the systematics and ecology of the genus". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 31 (5): 1026–1046. doi:10.1080/02724634.2011.601714. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 129001212.
- ^ Cuthbertson, Robin S.; Holmes, Robert B. (22 April 2015). "A new species of Plioplatecarpus (Mosasauridae, Plioplatecarpinae) from the Bearpaw Formation (Campanian, Upper Cretaceous) of Montana, U.S.A." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 35 (3): e922980. doi:10.1080/02724634.2014.922980. S2CID 129311001.
- ^ Jiménez-Huidobro, P.; Caldwell, M.W.; Paparella, I.; Bullard, T.S. (2018). "A new species of tylosaurine mosasaur from the upper Campanian Bearpaw Formation of Saskatchewan, Canada". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 17 (10): 1–16. doi:10.1080/14772019.2018.1471744. S2CID 90533033.