Taphonomy and taxonomy of a juvenile lambeosaurine (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae) bonebed from the late Campanian Wapiti Formation of northwestern Alberta, Canada

PeerJ

Yanyin Wang¹  Corwin Sullivan¹  Robin Sissons¹  Samantha M. Hamilton¹  Matthew J. Vavrek²  Federico Fanti³  Phil R. Bell⁴  Nicolás E. Campione⁴  Brayden Holland⁴  Derek W. Larson⁵ 

[1] Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada;Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada;Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy;Palaeoscience Research Centre, School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia;Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, Wembley, Alberta, Canada;

关键词: Bonebed;    Age segregation;    Campanian;    Wapiti Formation;    Palaeontology;    Ornithischia;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.11290

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur bonebeds are exceedingly prevalent in upper Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) strata from the Midwest of North America (especially Alberta, Canada, and Montana, U.S.A) but are less frequently documented from more northern regions. The Wapiti Formation (Campanian–Maastrichtian) of northwestern Alberta is a largely untapped resource of terrestrial palaeontological information missing from southern Alberta due to the deposition of the marine Bearpaw Formation. In 2018, the Boreal Alberta Dinosaur Project rediscovered the Spring Creek Bonebed, which had been lost since 2002, along the northern bank of the Wapiti River, southwest of Grande Prairie. Earlier excavations and observations of the Spring Creek Bonebed suggested that the site yielded young hadrosaurines. Continued work in 2018 and 2019 recovered ~300 specimens that included a minimum of eight individuals, based on the number of right humeri. The morphology of several recovered cranial elements unequivocally supports lambeosaurine affinities, making the Spring Creek sample the first documented occurrence of lambeosaurines in the Wapiti Formation. The overall size range and histology of the bones found at the site indicate that these animals were uniformly late juveniles, suggesting that age segregation was a life history strategy among hadrosaurids. Given the considerable size attained by the Spring Creek lambeosaurines, they were probably segregated from the breeding population during nesting or caring for young, rather than due to different diet and locomotory requirements. Dynamic aspects of life history, such as age segregation, may well have contributed to the highly diverse and cosmopolitan nature of Late Cretaceous hadrosaurids.

【 授权许可】

Unknown