The Horseshoe Canyon Formation is a stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southwestern Alberta.[2][3] It takes its name from Horseshoe Canyon, an area of badlands near Drumheller.
The Horseshoe Canyon Formation is part of the Edmonton Group. In its type section (Red Deer River Valley at Drumheller), it is ~250 metres (820 ft) thick, but further west the formation is older and thicker, exceeding 500 metres (1,600 ft) near Calgary.[4] It is of Late Cretaceous age, Campanian to early Maastrichtian stage (Edmontonian Land-Mammal Age), and is composed of mudstone, sandstone, carbonaceous shales, and coal seams. A variety of depositional environments are represented in the succession, including floodplains, estuarine channels, and coal swamps, 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 around Drumheller, as well as farther north along the Red Deer River near Trochu and along the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton.[2] It is overlain by the Battle and Scollard formations.[4] The Drumheller Coal Zone, located in the lower part of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, was mined for sub-bituminous coal in the Drumheller area from 1911 to 1979, and the Atlas Coal Mine in Drumheller has been preserved as a National Historic Site.[5] In more recent times, the Horseshoe Canyon Formation has become a major target for coalbed methane (CBM) production.
Contact (red arrow) between the underlying marine shales of the Bearpaw Formation and the coastal Horseshoe Canyon Formation. Coal beds (black bands) are common in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation and were formed in coastal swamps.
Dinosaurs found in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation include Albertavenator, Albertosaurus, Anchiceratops, Anodontosaurus, Arrhinoceratops, Atrociraptor, Epichirostenotes, Edmontonia, Edmontosaurus, Hypacrosaurus, Ornithomimus, Pachyrhinosaurus, Parksosaurus, Saurolophus, and Struthiomimus. Other finds have included mammals such as Didelphodon coyi, non-dinosaur reptiles, amphibians, fish, marine and terrestrial invertebrates and plant fossils. Reptiles such as turtles and crocodilians are rare in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, and this was thought to reflect the relatively cool climate which prevailed at the time. A study by Quinney et al. (2013) however, showed that the decline in turtle diversity, which was previously attributed to climate, coincided instead with changes in soil drainage conditions, and was limited by aridity, landscape instability, and migratory barriers.[6]
^Eberth, David A.; Kamo, Sandra L. (October 2020). "High-precision U–Pb CA–ID–TIMS dating and chronostratigraphy of the dinosaur-rich Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Campanian–Maastrichtian), Red Deer River valley, Alberta, Canada". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 57 (10): 1220–1237. doi:10.1139/cjes-2019-0019. ISSN 0008-4077.
^ abPrior, G. J., Hathaway, B., Glombick, P.M., Pana, D.I., Banks, C.J., Hay, D.C., Schneider, C.L., Grobe, M., Elgr, R., and Weiss, J.A. (2013). "Bedrock Geology of Alberta. Alberta Geological Survey, Map 600". Archived from the original on 2013-07-05. Retrieved 2013-08-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Mossop, G.D. and Shetsen, I., (compilers), Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (1994). "The Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, Chapter 24: Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary strata of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin". Archived from the original on 2013-07-21. Retrieved 2013-08-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ abEberth, David A.; Braman, Dennis R. (September 2012). "A revised stratigraphy and depositional history for the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Upper Cretaceous), southern Alberta plains". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 49 (9): 1053–1086. doi:10.1139/e2012-035. ISSN 0008-4077.
^"Mine History". Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site. Archived from the original on 23 August 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
^Quinney, Annie; Therrien, François; Zelenitsky, Darla K.; Eberth, David A. (2013). "Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction of the Upper Cretaceous (late Campanian–early Maastrichtian) Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Alberta, Canada". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 371: 26–44. Bibcode:2013PPP...371...26Q. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.12.009.
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HorseshoeCanyonFormation is a stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southwestern Alberta. It takes its name from Horseshoe Canyon...
of Asia and North America, that lived in what is now the HorseshoeCanyon and Nemegt formations about 70 million to 66 million years ago. It is one of the...
HorseshoeCanyonFormation also containing an Albertosaurus bonebed, near Drumheller. This bonebed is located at the top of Unit 4 of the Horseshoe Canyon...
within Ankylosauria. It is named after the Edmonton Formation (now the HorseshoeCanyonFormation in Canada), the unit of rock where it was found. Edmontonia...
after Edmonton, the capital city), in the HorseshoeCanyonFormation (formerly called the lower Edmonton Formation). The type species, E. regalis, was named...
sedimentology, and taphonomy of the Albertosaurus bonebed (upper HorseshoeCanyonFormation; Maastrichtian), southern Alberta, Canada". Canadian Journal of...
dispersal route. The first described hadrosaurid footprints from the HorseshoeCanyonFormation are described by Powers et al. (2024), who assign them to the...
the east bank of the Red Deer River near Tolman Ferry at the HorseshoeCanyonFormation in Alberta, Canada. This specimen is also housed in the collection...
Formation in the plains to the east and Montana. It is overlain by the HorseshoeCanyonFormation in central Alberta; by the Blood Reserve Formation and...
partial skull collected on June 9, 1884 from an outcrop of the HorseshoeCanyonFormation alongside the Red Deer River in Alberta. It was recovered by an...
The only known specimen was discovered in the Campanian-age HorseshoeCanyonFormation of Alberta. In 1993, at Drumheller in Alberta, three kilometres...
Judith River Formation of Montana, are actually from the Dinosaur Park Formation. However, recent studies referred all HorseshoeCanyonFormation specimens...
Ankylosaurinae. It is known from the entire span of the Late Cretaceous HorseshoeCanyonFormation (mid Late Campanian to "middle" Maastrichtian stage, about 72...
dinosaur from the Maastrichtian-age (Upper Cretaceous) rocks of the HorseshoeCanyonFormation of Alberta, Canada. It is known from forelimb and hindlimb remains...
Ferry, Alberta, Canada, from rocks of what is now known as the HorseshoeCanyonFormation (early Maastrichtian, Upper Cretaceous). Brown described these...
Hell Creek Formation of Montana and the Lance Formation of Wyoming, the Frenchman Formation of Saskatchewan, the HorseshoeCanyonFormation of Alberta...
neornithischian dinosaur from the early Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous HorseshoeCanyonFormation of Alberta, Canada. It is based on most of a partially articulated...
specimen of an immature Albertosaurus (CMN 11315) from the younger HorseshoeCanyonFormation in Alberta actually belonged to a third specimen of Daspletosaurus...
described. Most Anchiceratops fossils have been discovered in the HorseshoeCanyonFormation of Alberta, which belongs to the later part of the Campanian stage...
pelagic oceans. A tooth of Cretoxyrhina found in the HorseshoeCanyonFormation in Alberta (a formation where the only water deposits found consist of brackish...
"A new ceratopsid dinosaur (Ornithischia) from the uppermost HorseshoeCanyonFormation (upper Maastrichtian), Alberta, Canada". Canadian Journal of Earth...
known from several skeletons from the HorseshoeCanyonFormation. Additional species and specimens from other formations are sometimes classified as Ornithomimus...
paleontologist Phil Currie, based on a partial left frontal found in the HorseshoeCanyonFormation of Alberta during the 1990s. Albertavenator's discovery indicates...
the HorseshoeCanyonFormation (formerly the lower Edmonton Formation) along the Red Deer River of southern Alberta. Thus, the Edmonton Formation lent...
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