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Hike 'up' to KT Dinosaur extinction boundary. Alberta.


Ridgehiker

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Back to the Cretaceous badlands.

 

Fall has come to the Alberta Badlands and cooler temperatures.  This is a positive for exploring the steeper slopes  and KT dino extinction boundary high above the Red Deer River.  This report is a bit top heavy in scenery photos. Didn't want to get sidetracked by fossils  along long trek through lower levels or would never make it up to the destination.

 

Encountered Bullwinkle a couple of kms before our driving destination. Lots of wildlife this day including grouse, mule deer , coyotes and a million migrating waterfowl.

 

Need to  push our way through some non-badland topography.  Boreal and aspen forests.

 

 

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The Red Deer River flowing through the Horseshoe Canyon and Scollard Formations.  Quite a contrast between the natural and technological world...Di in the distance texting and doing her regular work from her 'open air' office.

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'The goal'. About a 125 meter high hoodoo. Difficult face but  lots of erosion to explore. Perhaps an hours scramble up. Di will explore below then come around the easier sloped side and meet up

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All fossils catch and release. 

 

Discovering 'stuff' as I go up. Can only take photos where I can pause on a ledge.

 

Lots of 'blue' coloured bone and teeth material. This colour is unique to the Scollard Formation.

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Dino fossils found in various layers. Herbivore material mostly hadrosaur  ( like this caudal vertebra and metatarsal).

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Just a fun photo.  Where's Waldo. Can you spot the Ankylosaur scute and a ceratopsian tooth? 

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The KT line!  Its at the lower dark band in the middle of the photo ( not the one with stone) Dinosaurs below and none above ( supposedly). 

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On this hoodoo I discovered a deposit of terrestrial molluscs just below the extinction boundary. Freshwater snails and clams.  The irony is they are the same half dozen genera we find in Alberta today. This was my 'Eureka' moment of the day as I had found identical preserved molluscs years ago and have searched for a similar deposit with no success until now.

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Di found one of the finest Tyrannosaur teeth I have ever seen. The photo doesn't do the serrations justice. 

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Great report and spectacular scenery!  I'm assuming that you poked around above the K-Pg (K-T) boundary just for the fun of it!  Did you find any evidence of fossil material at all?

 

-Joe

Illigitimati non carborundum

Fruitbat's PDF Library

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15 minutes ago, Fruitbat said:

Great report and spectacular scenery!  I'm assuming that you poked around above the K-Pg (K-T) boundary just for the fun of it!  Did you find any evidence of fossil material at all?

 

-Joe

 

There are vertebrate fossils above the KT boundary. Croc, turtle,Champsosaur, etc. However,  at this site I didnt find a fossiliferous layer.  I have found a Troodon tooth and another small raptor tooth at other exposures above the boundary.  Its possible they got there via glaciation but...?

 

I'm a skeptic when it comes to an 'all in one ' dino extinction event.  Around the globe we just dont have enough terrestrial formations spanning the boundary to make a definitive assumption.  An analogy...If we just had North America to look at today, we would assume that all members of the elephant family were extinct.

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What part of the Red Deer River did you collect? I've collected from Drumheller to up and around the Tolman Bridge.  Nice country.  That tyrannosaur tooth is pretty nice , size?

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