Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 The weather was a pleasant 20c so great to hike hours in the badlands and perfect to meander through the hoodoos and tackle a few precarious slopes. Overhead in the clear blue skies there were thousands of birds migrating south. All fossils are catch and release. The Red Deer River. The river cuts through and exposes various Cretaceous deposits for a few hundred kilometers before joining the South Saskatchewan River. At this site it exposes the Scollard and Horseshoe Canyon formations. Further south the Red Deer exposes the Dinosaur Park and Oldman formations. Other formations are exposed by the Bow, South Saskatchewan, Milk River and Oldman Rivers.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Lots to explore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 A theropod eroding from the clays under this sandstone cap. Most likely a small Tyrannosaur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Wah! This T rex tooth slice was one of the biggest I've come across. Couldn't find the rest of it. A couple other smaller Tyrannosaur teeth were mostly 'all there'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 This ceratopsian, probably Triceratops, lost a humongous tooth and a horn (right, middle of pole). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Wow! You could spend more than a lifetime exploring there! Love to get out there someday Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kane Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 A lovely and scenic trip - thanks for taking us along, albeit virtually! It just boggles my mind to think there are places like this where the dino teeth and bones are literally quite littered about! ...How to Philosophize with a Hammer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 These mounds are often contain a lot of dino material. Could be one dino or a few mixed together. Most likely swept away in some Cretaceous flood. A variety of vertebrae in the area so possibly a variety of dinos. Most of the dino material we find is sitting loose on the surface. These encased specimens are not common on the surface. The bone that pops out of them can be exquisite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 More dino mounds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Dino bone sometimes is covered in orange lichen. For some reason, a disproportionate percent of 'good stuff' can be found like this. I think the lichen gets a better hold on rough surfaces like jaws and scutes rather than smoother limb bones. Limb bones rarely have lichen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Tooth, etc. fragments fanned out across the clay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Chunks of layered fossil plant material. Almost like pages in a book. Pretty much solid plants. Indication of repeated floods over millenia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Some weird anomaly. A mini stonehenge of oval rocks standing on end? Perhaps put together by dino spirits. Not too clear a photo as late in the day and in the shade. Excuse blurry photo as hard to access area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Prairie falcon nests above. Most of the migrating falcons and hawks are now into Montana. Golden eagles massing up for migration for mid October. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Some more recent bones eroding out of redeposited clays. Not sure what they were. At first I thought bison but, upon examining, too slight. Too big for mule deer. Perhaps pre glacial but...? Although I'm one myself, I'm not that knowledgeable of mammal skeletons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Various dino vertebrae are hither and yon. Not sure why but not nearly as numerous as in other Alberta Cretaceous formations. Much smaller ratio found to limbs, ribs, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 There are some huge sinkholes. Perhaps full of monsters. Perhaps full of dino or bison remains. Someday full of mine if not careful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fruitbat Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Great trip report! The abundance of fossil material reminds of some places in the Eocene/Oligocene White River badlands of Nebraska/South Dakota/Wyoming. I'm envious! -Joe Illigitimati non carborundum Fruitbat's PDF Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 A few more topography photos. One way to find Tyrannosaur teeth is by being lazy. Just sit and wait for a glean of sunlight reflecting off the tooth's enamel surface. Its like holding a mirror in the sun. I found one here while I was takin a break stretching out on the clay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatinformationist Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Just keep piling it on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 22 minutes ago, Fruitbat said: Great trip report! The abundance of fossil material reminds of some places in the Eocene/Oligocene White River badlands of Nebraska/South Dakota/Wyoming. I'm envious! -Joe Thats an interesting comparison. I collected Oligocene material in South Dakota in the early 1980s. I find the Cretaceous deposits more fossiliferous but the Oligocene has far more articulated skeletons and especially skulls and jaws. Dino skulls are nearly always partial and fragmented and its difficult to recognize the fragments among the fossil debris. I could hike by a half dozen dino skulls and be hard pressed to see them. Jaws are rare and with teeth even rarer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snolly50 Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 Thank you for the wonderful account. Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smt126 Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 Just amazing again. I drool over these trip reports Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 Me too--I'll need to take a hair drier to my keyboard. Thanks again for the vicarious field trip. One day I'd love to experience this area first hand--what a marvel to behold. Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ptychodus04 Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 These reports make my garage even less exciting than it was already! Regards, Kris Global Paleo Services, LLC https://globalpaleoservices.com http://instagram.com/globalpaleoservices http://instagram.com/kris.howe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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