Stratigraphic range: Santonian-Campanian ~84.1–83.6 Ma
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O
S
D
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P
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Outcrops along the Milk River
Type
Geological formation
Unit of
Montana Group
Sub-units
Deadhorse Coulee Member Virgelle Member Telegraph Creek Member
Underlies
Pakowki Formation
Overlies
Colorado Group
Thickness
up to 113 metres (370 ft)[1]
Lithology
Primary
Sandstone
Other
Siltstone, shale, coal
Location
Region
Alberta
Country
Canada
Type section
Named for
Milk River
Named by
D.B. Dowling, 1916[2]
The Milk River Formation is a sandstone-dominated stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southern Alberta, Canada. It was deposited in near-shore to coastal environments during Late Cretaceous (late Santonian to early Campanian) time. Based on uranium-lead dating, palynology and stratigraphic relationships, deposition occurred between ~84.1 and 83.6 Ma.[3]
The sandstones of the Virgelle Member in the centre of the formation are well-exposed at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in southwestern Alberta, where they bear petroglyphs carved into them by First Nations people.
The formation is fossiliferous and has yielded an extensive vertebrate fauna (see Tables below), as well as fossil ammonites. In some areas it hosts shallow natural gas reservoirs.[4]
^Glass, D.J. (editor) 1997. Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, vol. 4, Western Canada including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Calgary, 1423 p. on CD-ROM. ISBN 0-920230-23-7.
^Dowling, D.B., 1916. Water Supply, Southeastern Alberta (Contains Geological Map 1604); Geological Survey of Canada, Summary Report 1915, pp. 102-110.
^Fowler, Denver Warwick (2017-11-22). "Revised geochronology, correlation, and dinosaur stratigraphic ranges of the Santonian-Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) formations of the Western Interior of North America". PLOS ONE. 12 (11): e0188426. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0188426. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 5699823. PMID 29166406.
^Payenberg, T.D.H., Braman, D.R. and Miall, A.D. 2003. Depositional environments and stratigraphic architecture of the Late Cretaceous and Eagle formations, southern Alberta and north-central Montana: Relationships to shallow gas. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 51, no. 2, p. 155-176.
and 28 Related for: Milk River Formation information
The MilkRiverFormation is a sandstone-dominated stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southern Alberta, Canada. It was deposited...
(Fox R.C. 1971) is known from the Upper Cretaceous of the Upper MilkRiverFormation in Alberta, Canada. Possible finds have been reported from New Mexico...
fossils found in Campanian (Upper Cretaceous)-aged strata of the Upper MilkRiverFormation in Alberta, Canada. Possible remains have also been found in Dogie...
Weight: about 50 g Mesodma thompsoni (=M. garfieldensis) Place: St Mary RiverFormation & Montana and Wyoming of the US and Canada Age: Maastrichtian-Puercan...
Fox in 1971. Remains were found in Campanian strata of the Upper MilkRiverFormation of Alberta, Canada. The holotype, collected in 1968, is in the University...
were found in the Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) strata of the Judith RiverFormation in Montana, USA. Paracimexomys priscus- Fossil remains were found in...
partial skeletons of M. bipartitus have been found in the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta. Myledaphus remains have been found both in marine and fluvial...
Prismatoolithus is an oogenus of dinosaur egg from the Cretaceous (Hauterivian-Maastrichtian) and possibly also the earliest Paleocene. They likely belonged...
Mongolia La Posa Formation (Tremp Group), Spain Two Medicine Formation, Montana and North Horn Formation, Utah, United States Lameta Formation, India Spheroolithus...
Habitats can be found in the Missouri River Basin and Mississippi River drainage area, westward in the Rio Grande River basin of Southern Texas and Northern...
bellus, "C." clarki and "C." electus. Age: Lower Paleocene of the Denver Formation in Colorado (United States) "C. arapahoensis is known from four dental...
Pakowki Formation is abruptly overlain by the MilkRiverFormation and gradationally overlays the Judith RiverFormation or Foremost Formation. It is equivalent...
dinosaur that lived during the Santonian of the late Cretaceous, in the MilkRiverFormation of Canada. The type species, A. audeti, was named after Roy Audet...
unidentified (possibly theropod) footprints in the Middle-Late Triassic Pekin Formation of North Carolina. However, the most reliable early record of North American...
been found in the Hell Creek Formation, Judith RiverFormation and Polecat Bench Formation of Montana, the MilkRiverFormation of Alberta, Canada and possibly...
described members of the genus, and one undiagnosed species from the Paskapoo Formation, making it by far the most speciose genus in the family. Members of the...
Lambe in 1902. The species N. lithographicus was discovered in the MilkRiverFormation (Canada), alongside the holotype of the pachycephalosaurid dinosaur...
fossil site at the Two Medicine Formation in Teton County, Montana. It is the oldest known fossil egg site at that formation, dating to 80 million years ago...
classification of ornithoid eggshell fragments from the Oldman Formation (Judith River Group; Upper Cretaceous), southern Alberta. Canadian Journal of...
Wapiabi Formation, the Colorado Group shale or the Lea Park Formation shale. It is equivalent to the MilkRiverFormation and Pakowki Formation. The Belly...
northwest corner of Dinosaur Provincial Park, from bonebed 55 of the MilkRiverFormation, dating to the late Santonian stage of the middle Late Cretaceous...
Campanian Multituberculates (Mammalia: Allotheria) from the Upper MilkRiverFormation, Alberta". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 8 (8): 916–38. Bibcode:1971CaJES...
genus, represented exclusively by A. lindoei. It is known from the MilkRiverFormation deposits of the early Campanian of Alberta, Canada. It is known from...
older MilkRiverFormation were referred to a cf. Zapsalis. In 2019, Currie and Evans announced that the Zapsalis teeth from the Dinosaur Park Formation represented...
a sauropod caudal vertebra in the Deadhorse Coulee Member of the MilkRiverFormation, dating to the Santonian. If confirmed, it would represent the northernmost...
Albertatherium secundus. Fossils have been found in the Eagle Formation of Montana and the MilkRiverFormation of Alberta. Albertatherium is a member of the Alphadontidae...
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