Search

Eighty-nine samples from three boreholes penetrating the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Late Campanian) in south-central Alberta (Canada) were investigated for megaspore content. The samples were found to contain 49 species belonging to the genera Azolla, Bacutriletes, Costatheca, Dictyothylakos, Echitriletes, Erlansonisporites, Ghoshispora, Glomerisporites, Minerisporites, Molaspora, Monophyllosporites, Paxillitriletes, Spermatites, Striatriletes and Trileites, including one new species of Spermatites (S. reticulatus). Deposits representing low-lying coastal plains with widespread peat swamps, meandering channels and back swamp environments yielded the highest numbers of megaspores. An analysis of characteristics of the 22 species of Costatheca and 18 species and one subspecies of Spermatites leads to the proposal of a system of shape classes. Dichotomous keys to species were prepared. The geographical and stratigraphical distributions of the genera were also reviewed to elucidate their potential use in biostratigraphic and palaeoecological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anchiceratops is a chasmosaurine ceratopsid from the Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation (HCF) of Alberta. It is distinguished primarily by its unique parietosquamosal frill ornamentation and possibly by the presence of a ventrally flexed olfactory bulb of the brain. Although Anchiceratops is known from at least ten partial skulls, only two of these have been formally described. These skulls are not stratigraphically segregated, but they differ markedly in their proportions (e.g., supraorbital horncore and frill dimensions), causing previous authors to account for this disparity with reference to either interspecific or sexual differences. Both of these hypotheses assume that variation in Anchiceratops is dimorphic; however, this assumption has never been tested with reference to all available material. The present study describes all material from the HCF that can be positively attributed to Anchiceratops, and tests the assumption of dimorphism by subjecting this material to a series of morphometric analyses. We find no compelling evidence for dimorphism in Anchiceratops, although sample size is still too small for convincing statistical support. We conclude that there is a single, variable species of Anchiceratops, A. ornatus. Average sedimentation rates for the HCF suggest that A. ornatus is a particularly long-lived species compared with other ceratopsids (∼1.5-2.0 Ma), and the paleoecological implications of this are discussed. A cladistic analysis that includes the new data presented here indicates that Anchiceratops is more closely related to Chasmosaurus than to Triceratops, in contrast with previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a new species of nanhsiungchelyid turtle, Basilemys morrinensis, based on a nearly complete shell from the Horsethief Member (lower Maastrichtian) of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta. The species is intermediate in age between the Campanian forms B. variolosa and B. gaffneyi and the upper Maastrichtian forms B. sinuosa and B. praeclara. It is also intermediate in its morphology, possessing a unique suite of both plesiomorphic (e.g., divided extragulars) and derived (e.g., square epiplastral beak, pygal wider than long) traits. It is further characterized by an autapomorphic square cervical scale. Phylogenetic analysis assuming parsimony recovers B. morrinensis in a polytomy with B. variolosa and B. gaffneyi, outside the clade formed by the upper Maastrichtian forms B. sinuosa and B. praeclara. The holotype of Basilemys morrinensis provides the first evidence that this genus reached large size (∼1 m long) in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation and was not diminutive as previously thought based on less complete shell material. Although Basilemys is usually regarded as terrestrial in habit based on its skull and limb morphology, we note that the low profile of its shell is a derived feature usually indicative of an aquatic mode of life. This suggests that there is yet much to learn about the life habits of this interesting turtle. https://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F1F61F25-C441-4D7D-99B0-D460ABCC7918 SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVP Citation for this article: Mallon, J. C., and D. B. Brinkman. 2018. Basilemys morrinensis, a new species of nanhsiungchelyid turtle from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Alberta, Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2018.1431922. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]