CHADWICK,
Arthur V.1, SPENCER, Lee A.2, and TURNER, L.E.1,
(1) Geology, Southwestern Adventist University, 100 Magnolia, Keene, TX 76059,
chadwick@swau.edu, (2) Department of Biology, Southern Adventist University,
P.O. Box 370, Collegedale, TN 37315
Studies on an extensive Upper Cretaceous monotypic Edmontosaurus bone
bed in the Lance Formation in eastern
The bone bed is extensive, covering an area in excess of 1 square kilometer,
but most concentrated in an area of about ten hectares. While we do not yet
have quantitative bone data over much of this area, test quarries suggest the
distribution of bones is reasonably consistent throughout. Estimates based upon
test quarries and the main quarry area, extrapolated over the known extent of
the ten hectares, suggest the bones of 5000 to 10,000
animals are interred here.
The bones occur as individual disarticulated elements or occasionally,
partially disarticulated assemblages. The bones were transported to the site in
a poorly consolidated mudstone. The mechanism of transport is not known, but
occasionally maintained elements with articulation fidelity suggesting that at
least some tissue connections remained intact. The bones occur as a graded bed
within the mudstone with large limb bones at the base of the layer, grading
upward to vertebra and toe bones in all quarry sites. The mudstone thickens to
the north and west and pinches out to the south where it is displaced by a
fine-grained, well sorted immature sandstone showing evidence of rapid
accumulation. The bone bed itself provides one of the rare stratigraphic
markers in this section of the Lance Formation, being traceable for more than a
kilometer.