Horseshoe Canyon Formation
Encyclopedia
The Horseshoe Canyon Formation is part of the Edmonton Group
Edmonton Group
The Edmonton Group is a stratigraphical unit of Late Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.It takes the name from the city of Edmonton, and was first described in outcrops on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River near the city by Joseph Burr Tyrrell in 1887.-Lithology:The...

 and is up to 230m in thickness. It is Late Campanian to Early Maastrichtian
Maastrichtian
The Maastrichtian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the latest age or upper stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series, the Cretaceous period or system, and of the Mesozoic era or erathem. It spanned from 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma to 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma...

 in age (Edmontonian Land Mammal Age) and is composed of mudstone
Mudstone
Mudstone is a fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.0625 mm with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time the platey clay minerals may become aligned, with the...

, sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

, and carbonaceous
Carbonaceous
Carbonaceous is the defining attribute of a substance rich in carbon. Particularly, carbonaceous hydrocarbons are very unsaturated, high-molecular-weight hydrocarbons, having an elevated carbon:hydrogen ratio....

 shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

s. There are a variety of environments represented by the succession, including floodplains, estuarine channels, and coalswamps, which have yielded a diversity of fossil material. Tidally-influenced estuarine point bar deposits are easily recognizable as Inclined Heterolithic Stratification (IHS). Brackish-water trace fossil assemblages occur within these bar deposits and demonstrate periodic incursion of marine waters into the estuaries. The Horseshoe Canyon Formation crops out extensively in the area of Drumheller, Alberta, as well as further north along the Red Deer River near Trochu, and also in the city of Edmonton. It is overlain by the Battle, Whitemud, and Scollard
Scollard Formation
-References:* Ryan, M. J., and Russell, A. P., 2001. Dinosaurs of Alberta : In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life, edited by Tanke, D. H., and Carpenter, K., Indiana University Press, pp. 279-297....

 formations. The Drumheller Coal Zone, located in the lower part of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, has been a primary CBM target for industry. In the area between Bashaw and Rockyford, the Drumheller Coal Zone is relatively shallow (about 300 metres) with 10 to 20 metres cumulative coal within a 70- to 120-metre coal zone thickness. The coal zone may contain 20 or more individual thin seams and interbedded sandstone and shale, which combine to make an attractive multi-completion CBM target for drilling companies. In total, it is estimated there are 14 trillion cubic metres (500 tcf) of gas in place in all the coal in Alberta.

Dinosaurs found in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation include Albertosaurus
Albertosaurus
Albertosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, more than 70 million years ago. The type species, A. sarcophagus, was apparently restricted in range to the modern-day Canadian province of Alberta, after which...

, Anchiceratops
Anchiceratops
Anchiceratops is a genus of chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of western North America. Like other ceratopsids, it was a quadrupedal herbivore with three horns on its face, a parrot-like beak, and a long frill extending from the back of its head. The two horns above...

, Arrhinoceratops
Arrhinoceratops
Arrhinoceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur. The name was coined as its original describer concluded it had no nose-horn, however further analysis revealed this not to be the case...

, Atrociraptor
Atrociraptor
Atrociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada....

, Epichirostenotes
Epichirostenotes
Epichirostenotes is a genus of oviraptorosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous. Epichirostenotes is known from an incomplete skeleton found in 1923 at the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, in strata dated to about 72 million years ago. It was first named by Robert M. Sullivan, Steven E. Jasinski and...

, Dromiceiomimus, Edmontonia
Edmontonia
Edmontonia was an armoured dinosaur, a part of the nodosaur family from the Late Cretaceous Period. It is named after the Edmonton Formation , the unit of rock it was found in.-Description:...

, Edmontosaurus
Edmontosaurus
Edmontosaurus is a genus of crestless hadrosaurid dinosaur. It contains two species: Edmontosaurus regalis and Edmontosaurus annectens. Fossils of E. regalis have been found in rocks of western North America that date from the late Campanian stage of the Cretaceous Period 73 million years ago,...

, Euoplocephalus
Euoplocephalus
Euoplocephalus was one of the largest genera of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, at about the size of a small elephant. It is also the ankylosaurian with the best fossil record, so its extensive spiked armor, low-slung body and great club-like tail are well documented.-Description:Among the...

, Hypacrosaurus
Hypacrosaurus
Hypacrosaurus was a genus of duckbill dinosaur similar in appearance to Corythosaurus. Like Corythosaurus, it had a tall, hollow rounded crest, although not as large and straight...

, Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America.In 1890 Ornithomimus velox was named by Othniel Charles Marsh on the basis of a foot and partial hand from the Maastrichtian Denver Formation. Another seventeen species have been named since...

, Pachyrhinosaurus
Pachyrhinosaurus
Pachyrhinosaurus is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous period of North America. The first examples were discovered by Charles M. Sternberg in Alberta, Canada, in 1946, and named in 1950. Over a dozen partial skulls and a large assortment of other fossils from various species...

, Parksosaurus
Parksosaurus
Parksosaurus was a genus of hypsilophodont ornithopod dinosaur from the early Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada. It is based on most of a partially articulated skeleton and partial skull, showing it to have been a small, bipedal, herbivorous dinosaur...

, Saurolophus
Saurolophus
Saurolophus is a genus of large hadrosaurine duckbill that lived about 69.5-68.5 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of North America and Asia; it is one of the few genera of dinosaurs known from multiple continents. It is distinguished by a spike-like crest which projects up and back...

, Stegoceras
Stegoceras
Stegoceras is a genus of plant-eating pachycephalosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now North America during the Late Cretaceous period....

, Struthiomimus
Struthiomimus
Struthiomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. It was a long-legged, ostrich-like dinosaur.The bipedal Struthiomimus stood about long and tall at the hips and weighed around...

and Troodon
Troodon
Troodon is a genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period . Discovered in 1855, it was among the first dinosaurs found in North America...

. Other finds have included mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s such as Didelphodon
Didelphodon
Didelphodon is a genus of stagodont marsupials from the Late Cretaceous of North America. Three species are known: Didelphodon vorax, D. padanicus, and D. coyi. Although perhaps little larger than a Virginia Opossum, it was one of the largest mammals of the Mesozoic...

 coyi
, non-dinosaur reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s, amphibian
Amphibian
Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

s, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, marine and terrestrial invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...

s and plant fossils. Reptiles such as turtles and crocodilians are rare in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, and this is thought to reflect the relatively cool climate which prevailed at the time.

Horseshoe Canyon
Horseshoe Canyon (Alberta)
Horseshoe Canyon is a region of badlands surrounded by prairie in the province of Alberta, Canada. It is located about 17 km west of Drumheller, Alberta, along Highway 9....

itself is located 17 km southwest of Drumheller, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, on Highway 9. This Canyon gets its name from its horseshoe shape and is approximately 3 km long, extending from Highway 9 to Kneehill Creek area.

Oil/gas production

Coalbed methane
Coalbed methane
Coalbed methane or Coal Bed Methane, coalbed gas or coal mine methane is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. In recent decades it has become an important source of energy in United States, Canada, and other countries...

 is extracted from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Southern Alberta
Southern Alberta
Southern Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of the year 2004, the region's population was approximately 272,017. The primary cities are Lethbridge and Medicine Hat...

.

Ankylosaurs

Ornithischians reported from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation
Genus Species Location Stratigraphic position Material Notes Images

Edmontonia
Edmontonia
Edmontonia was an armoured dinosaur, a part of the nodosaur family from the Late Cretaceous Period. It is named after the Edmonton Formation , the unit of rock it was found in.-Description:...


E. longiceps


Euoplocephalus
Euoplocephalus
Euoplocephalus was one of the largest genera of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, at about the size of a small elephant. It is also the ankylosaurian with the best fossil record, so its extensive spiked armor, low-slung body and great club-like tail are well documented.-Description:Among the...


E. tutus

Maniraptors

Maniraptors reported from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation
Genus Species Location Stratigraphic position Material Notes Images

Albertonykus
Albertonykus
Albertonykus is a genus of alvarezsaurid dinosaur from lower Maastrichtian-age rocks of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada. It is known from forelimb and hindlimb remains from multiple individuals. All but two of the specimens come from a bonebed dominated by Albertosaurus...


A. borealis

Limb bones, type specimen

An alvarezsaurid


Atrociraptor
Atrociraptor
Atrociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada....


A. marshalli

Partial skull, type specimen

A dromaeosaurid

Dromaeosaurus
Dromaeosaurus
Dromaeosaurus was a genus of theropod dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous period , sometime between 76.5 and 74.8 million years ago, in the western United States and Alberta, Canada. The name means 'running lizard'....


Indeterminate

Teeth

A dromaeosaurid

Epichirostenotes
Epichirostenotes
Epichirostenotes is a genus of oviraptorosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous. Epichirostenotes is known from an incomplete skeleton found in 1923 at the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, in strata dated to about 72 million years ago. It was first named by Robert M. Sullivan, Steven E. Jasinski and...


E. curriei

Partial skeleton, type specimen

A caenagnathid

Paronychodon
Paronychodon
Paronychodon was a theropod dinosaur genus. It is a tooth taxon, considered dubious because of the fragmentary nature of the fossils, which include "buckets" of teeth but no other remains...


Indeterminate

Teeth

An indeterminate maniraptoran

Richardoestesia

R. gilmorei

Teeth

A dromaeosaurid

R. isosceles

Teeth

Saurornitholestes
Saurornitholestes
Saurornitholestes is a genus of carnivorous dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Alberta, Montana and New Mexico....


Indeterminate

Teeth

A dromaeosaurid

Troodon
Troodon
Troodon is a genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period . Discovered in 1855, it was among the first dinosaurs found in North America...


Indeterminate

Teeth

A troodontid

Marginocephalians

Marginocephalians reported from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation
Genus Species Location Stratigraphic position Material Notes Images

Anchiceratops
Anchiceratops
Anchiceratops is a genus of chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of western North America. Like other ceratopsids, it was a quadrupedal herbivore with three horns on its face, a parrot-like beak, and a long frill extending from the back of its head. The two horns above...


A. ornatus


Arrhinoceratops
Arrhinoceratops
Arrhinoceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur. The name was coined as its original describer concluded it had no nose-horn, however further analysis revealed this not to be the case...


A. brachyops

"Complete skull."

Eotriceratops
Eotriceratops
Eotriceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur which lived during the late Cretaceous period. Its fossils have been found in the uppermost Horseshoe Canyon Formation, dating to about 67.6 million years ago. Its skull is reported to have been around 3 metres long...


E. xerinsularis‏

Found within the upper 20 m of the formation.

Montanoceratops
Montanoceratops
Montanoceratops was a genus of small ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the early Maastrichtian of the late Cretaceous Period...


M. cerorhynchus

Isolated braincase AMNH 5244.

AMNH 5244 was probably left by an indeterminate leptoceratopsid.

Pachyrhinosaurus
Pachyrhinosaurus
Pachyrhinosaurus is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous period of North America. The first examples were discovered by Charles M. Sternberg in Alberta, Canada, in 1946, and named in 1950. Over a dozen partial skulls and a large assortment of other fossils from various species...


P. canadensis

Upper unit 1

Ceratopsids

P. lakustai

Lower unit 1

Stegoceras
Stegoceras
Stegoceras is a genus of plant-eating pachycephalosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now North America during the Late Cretaceous period....


S. edmontonense

?Prenocephale
Prenocephale
Prenocephale was a small pachycephalosaurid dinosaur genus from the Late Cretaceous and was similar in many ways to its close relative, Homalocephale, which may simply represent Prenocephale juveniles. Adult Prenocephale probably weighed around and measured around long...

.

Ornithomimids

Ornithomimids reported from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation
Genus Species Location Stratigraphic position Material Notes Images

Dromiceiomimus

D. brevitertius

Type specimen

Junior synonym of Ornithomimus edmontonicus
Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America.In 1890 Ornithomimus velox was named by Othniel Charles Marsh on the basis of a foot and partial hand from the Maastrichtian Denver Formation. Another seventeen species have been named since...

.


Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America.In 1890 Ornithomimus velox was named by Othniel Charles Marsh on the basis of a foot and partial hand from the Maastrichtian Denver Formation. Another seventeen species have been named since...


O. brevitertius

Junior synonym of O. edmontonicus

O. currellii

Junior synonym of O. edmontonicus

O. edmontonicus

Several specimens, type specimen

An ornithomimid

O. velox

Misclassified, now considered Struthiomimus
Struthiomimus
Struthiomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. It was a long-legged, ostrich-like dinosaur.The bipedal Struthiomimus stood about long and tall at the hips and weighed around...

sp.

Struthiomimus
Struthiomimus
Struthiomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. It was a long-legged, ostrich-like dinosaur.The bipedal Struthiomimus stood about long and tall at the hips and weighed around...


Indeterminate

An ornithomimid

S. brevitertius

Junior synonym of Ornithomimus edmontonicus
Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America.In 1890 Ornithomimus velox was named by Othniel Charles Marsh on the basis of a foot and partial hand from the Maastrichtian Denver Formation. Another seventeen species have been named since...


S. currellii

Junior synonym of Ornithomimus edmontonicus
Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America.In 1890 Ornithomimus velox was named by Othniel Charles Marsh on the basis of a foot and partial hand from the Maastrichtian Denver Formation. Another seventeen species have been named since...


S. ingens

Junior synonym of Ornithomimus edmontonicus
Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America.In 1890 Ornithomimus velox was named by Othniel Charles Marsh on the basis of a foot and partial hand from the Maastrichtian Denver Formation. Another seventeen species have been named since...


Ornithopods

Ornithopod
Ornithopod
Ornithopods or members of the clade Ornithopoda are a group of ornithischian dinosaurs that started out as small, bipedal running grazers, and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous world, and dominated the North American...

s reported from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation
Genus Species Location Stratigraphic position Material Notes Images

Edmontosaurus
Edmontosaurus
Edmontosaurus is a genus of crestless hadrosaurid dinosaur. It contains two species: Edmontosaurus regalis and Edmontosaurus annectens. Fossils of E. regalis have been found in rocks of western North America that date from the late Campanian stage of the Cretaceous Period 73 million years ago,...


E. regalis


Hypacrosaurus
Hypacrosaurus
Hypacrosaurus was a genus of duckbill dinosaur similar in appearance to Corythosaurus. Like Corythosaurus, it had a tall, hollow rounded crest, although not as large and straight...


H. altispinus

"[Five to ten] articulated skulls, some associated with postcrania, isolated skull elements, isolated postcranial elements, many individuals, embryo to adult."

Parksosaurus
Parksosaurus
Parksosaurus was a genus of hypsilophodont ornithopod dinosaur from the early Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada. It is based on most of a partially articulated skeleton and partial skull, showing it to have been a small, bipedal, herbivorous dinosaur...


P. warrenae

Saurolophus
Saurolophus
Saurolophus is a genus of large hadrosaurine duckbill that lived about 69.5-68.5 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of North America and Asia; it is one of the few genera of dinosaurs known from multiple continents. It is distinguished by a spike-like crest which projects up and back...


S. osborni

"Complete skull and skeleton, [two] complete skulls."

Tyrannosaurs

Theropods reported from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation
Genus Species Location Stratigraphic position Material Notes Images

Albertosaurus
Albertosaurus
Albertosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, more than 70 million years ago. The type species, A. sarcophagus, was apparently restricted in range to the modern-day Canadian province of Alberta, after which...


A. arctunguis

Junior synonym of A. sarcophagus


A. sarcophagus

Several skeletons and partial skeletons, type specimen

A tyrannosaurid

?Daspletosaurus
Daspletosaurus
Daspletosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America between 77 and 74 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period. Fossils of the only named species were found in Alberta, although other possible species from Alberta and Montana await...


Indeterminate

Bonebed

A tyrannosaurid, may represent Albertosaurus
Albertosaurus
Albertosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, more than 70 million years ago. The type species, A. sarcophagus, was apparently restricted in range to the modern-day Canadian province of Alberta, after which...

 sarcophagus

Deinodon
Deinodon
Deinodon is a name assigned to tyrannosaurid teeth of the Late Cretaceous of Montana by paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1856...


D. arctunguis

Junior synonym of Albertosaurus
Albertosaurus
Albertosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, more than 70 million years ago. The type species, A. sarcophagus, was apparently restricted in range to the modern-day Canadian province of Alberta, after which...

 sarcophagus

D. sarcophagus

Junior synonym of Albertosaurus
Albertosaurus
Albertosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, more than 70 million years ago. The type species, A. sarcophagus, was apparently restricted in range to the modern-day Canadian province of Alberta, after which...

 sarcophagus

Dryptosaurus
Dryptosaurus
Dryptosaurus was a genus of primitive tyrannosaur that lived in Eastern North America during the middle Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. Although largely unknown now outside of academic circles, a famous painting of the genus by Charles R...


D. incrassetus (formerly Laelaps)

Teeth

Nomen dubium

See also

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