Pinhorn Provincial Grazing Reserve (Cretaceous of Canada)

Also known as Wendiceratops type locality, “South Side Ceratopsian” bonebed

Where: Alberta, Canada (49.1° N, 110.9° W: paleocoordinates 56.4° N, 76.4° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Oldman Formation (Belly River Group), Middle Campanian (83.5 - 70.6 Ma)

• The bonebed occurs in the Oldman Formation, 10 m above the top of the Taber coal zone, and just above a sandy interval of the Foremost Formation referred to as the Herronton sandstone zone

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; sandy mudstone

• transitional marginal marine-terrestrial unit deposited during the regressive phase of the Western Interior Seaway
• The bonebed host unit sits at the top of a 10 m thick succession of interbedded 20–50 cm thick mudstones, and thin siltstones and sandstones. The fossils are produced from an approximately 40 cm thick, organic-fragment-rich clayey, sandy mudstone that is rich in coalified root traces, both horizontal and vertical, suggesting a saturated or water-logged anoxic deposit. The bonebed zone is massive with no apparent sedimentary structures or lamination, indicating a mass sediment flow origin or extensive trampling, or both; thus, the elements may be largely in situ, or minimally reworked

Size class: macrofossils

Collected in 2010-; reposited in the ROM

Collection methods: quarrying,

• Six 1 m x 1 m grids were completely excavated, while another 12 grid sections were partially excavated, including at least 6 incomplete grids along the erosional face of the quarry (Fig 2). The average number of elements/grid from the completely excavated grids is 17, with a range of 12 (grid 5D) to 23 (grid 8D). The average length of the mapped elements (excluding bone fragments) is 173 mm (n = 126).

Primary reference: D. C. Evans and M. J. Ryan. 2015. Cranial anatomy of Wendiceratops pinhornensis gen. et sp. nov., a centrosaurine ceratopsid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Oldman Formation (Campanian), Alberta, Canada, and the evolution of ceratopsid nasal ornamentation. PLoS ONE 10(7):e0130007 [P. Mannion/J. Tennant]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 171408: authorized by Philip Mannion, entered by Jonathan Tennant on 10.07.2015

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Reptilia
 Ornithischia - Ceratopsidae
Wendiceratops pinhornensis n. gen. n. sp. Evans and Ryan 2015 ceratopsid
Holotype. TMP 2011.051.0009, an incomplete parietal lacking the midline bar and left ramus (Fig 4A–4C). Referred Material. Cranial material referred to Wendiceratops pinhornensis gen. et sp. nov. includes: TMP 2011.051.0019 (subadult lateral parietal bar; Fig 4D and 4E); TMP 2013.020.0048 (parietal, posterior midline bar; Fig 5); TMP 2014.029.0097 (parietal fragment; Fig 6A–6C); TMP 2014.029.0016 (parietal fragment; Fig 6I and 6J), TMP 2011.051.0010 (right squamosal; Fig 7A and 7B), TMP 2011.051.0002 (squamosal fragment; Fig 7C and 7D); TMP 2013.020.0006 (squamosal fragment; Fig 7E and 7F); TMP 2013.020.0035 (incomplete pathological squamosal); TMP 2013.020.0028 (nasal fragment; Fig 8D–8F); TMP 2013.020.0016 (incomplete jugal; Fig 9D and 9E); TMP 2014.029.0074 (right maxilla, Fig 10A–10E). For a complete list of referred material, see Supporting Information (S1 File)