Early Cretaceous (?early late Albian) echinoderms from northeastern British Columbia, Canada

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
William I. Ausich ◽  
Charles R. Stelck ◽  
A. Guy Plint ◽  
Robin A. Buckley ◽  
Piotr J. Angiel

An echinoderm association is reported from the ?early late Albian Paddy Member of the Peace River Formation of British Columbia, Canada. The association includes Frasericrinus mauricensis gen. et sp. nov., two additional distinctive crinoid column types, a poorly preserved asteroid, and an umbilical fragment of the cephalopod Stelckiceras. This is the first report of a Cretaceous isocrinid from North America. The echinoderm fossils are from the top of a succession of storm-deposited sandstones and mudstones (Boulder Creek Formation) that can be correlated southward into nearshore and terrestrial facies of the Paddy Member of the Peace River Formation. The echinoderm fossils were buried (and probably lived) about 12–14 km from the contemporaneous shoreline in an estimated water depth of 10–20 m. Integration of biostratigraphic and allostratigraphic schemes suggests that the echinoderms are of earliest late Albian age. The association of the echinoderm fauna with ammonites of Boreal affinity indicates deposition in northern waters, although the presence of Tethyan inoceramids in apparently coeval Paddy Member strata 270 km to the east suggests that northward-advancing water from the Gulf of Mexico had reached northwestern Alberta, if not actually merged with the Boreal embayment. The nearshore occurrence of Cretaceous stalked crinoids is indicative of an asynchronous, gradual migration of stalked crinoids to deep-water habitats, to which they are restricted in modern oceans.

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (7) ◽  
pp. 677-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Vavrek ◽  
Alison M. Murray ◽  
Phil R. Bell

A recent survey of the middle Cenomanian Dunvegan Formation along the Peace River, Alberta, has yielded a partial skull of a large acipenseriform fish. The fossil was from an animal approximately 5 m in length, based on comparisons with living relatives. Though incomplete, this represents an important record of mid-Cretaceous fish from northern North America, as formations of this age are virtually unexplored in northern regions. This fossil is the oldest acipenserid from North America, and one of the most northerly known.


2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (12) ◽  
pp. 949-957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai-Lu You ◽  
Da-Qing Li

A new hadrosauriform dinosaur, Jintasaurus meniscus gen. et sp. nov., is reported from the Lower Cretaceous Xinminpu Group of the Yujingzi Basin, Jiuquan area, Gansu Province, northwestern China. It is represented by an articulated posterior portion of the skull and is unique in having an extremely long, pendant and crescentic paroccipital process with its ventral tip projecting far beyond the ventral level of the occipital condyle. Phylogenetic analysis recovers Jintasaurus as the sister-taxon to Hadrosauroidea, more derived than other Early Cretaceous hadrosauriforms and Protohadros from the early Late Cretaceous of North America. This discovery adds one more close relative to Hadrosauroidea in Asia and supports an Asian origin for this group.


1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Stelck

Throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan, the upper Albian Substage lies unconformably on subjacent beds. However, on the Peace River in northeastern British Columbia, 32 km below Hudson Hope, a silty shale outcrop shows uninterrupted marine deposition across the Middle–Upper Albian substage boundary. An arenaceous foraminiferal fauna of 21 genera and 57 sub-generic taxa is illustrated from this outcrop of the Hasler Shale. The collections come from above the previously illustrated microfauna of the Stelckiceras liardense Zone and below the occurrence of Haplophragmoides gigas gigas and provide a spectrum of transitional faunules spanning the middle–upper Albian boundary. The corresponding boundary of the Ammobaculites wenonahae Subzone of the Gaudryina nanushukensis Zone with the overlying Haplophragmoides uniorbis Subzone (new) at the base of the Haplophragmoides gigas Zone is defined at 73 m above the top of the Cadotte Sandstone by the disappearance of A. wenonahae. Genera within the upper part of the A. wenonahae Subzone and the H. uniorbis Subzone include Bathysiphon, Saccammina, Pelosina, Hippocrepina, Psammosphaera, Thuramminoides, Ammodiscus, Miliammina, Psamminopelta, Reophax, Scherochorella, Haplophragmoides, Ammobaculites, Bulbophragmium, Ammobaculoides, Textulariopsis, Pseudobolivina, Trochammina, Gravellina, Eggerella, and Verneuilinoides. Two new species and two new subspecies are established, viz. Ammobaculites kokei, Trochammina bredini, Haplophragmoides gigas Cushman pregigas, and Reophax deckeri Tappan sliteri. Species originally described from the upper Albian of Wyoming, such as Haplophragmoides uniorbis Eicher, originated out of boreal stock, as they are recognized within the middle Albian upper A. wenonahae Subzone north of the Peace River Arch. On the Peace River, the passage from middle Albian to upper Albian is marked by water depth at or below wave base, but regression is reflected at the substage boundary by the sharp reduction in variety of taxa.


1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 1223-1227 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. S. Sarjeant ◽  
R. A. Thulborn

Probable marsupial footprints, exhibiting syndactyly of digits II and III of the pes, are described and placed into a new ichnogenus and species, Duquettichnus kooli. The type specimen is from the Cretaceous (late Aptian to early Albian) sediments of the Peace River canyon near Hudson Hope, British Columbia. This constitutes the first evidence for syndactyly among Mesozoic mammals, whose postcranial skeletons are very poorly known. It may well also constitute the earliest evidence for the presence of marsupials in Mesozoic North America.


2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-147
Author(s):  
Torrey Nyborg ◽  
Alessandro Garassino ◽  
Richard L.M. Ross

We report Sabellidromites lanae n. sp. (Crustacea, Decapoda, Dromiidae) from the Late Cretaceous (late Campanian) of Hornby Island, British Columbia (Canada). Sabellidromites lanae n. sp. is the first report of a dromioid crab from Nanaimo Group of Vancouver Island and the first report for the genus in North America, enlarging its palaeogeographic range.


1973 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale H. Vitt ◽  
Michael Ostafichuk ◽  
Irwin M. Brodo

Four species of mosses, all in the genus Orthotrichum; 1 species of hepatics; and 16 species of lichens compose the foliicolous bryophyte and lichen flora of Thuja plicata L. leaves in certain areas of western British Columbia. This is the first report of foliicolous mosses and hepatics for North America, north of the tropical and subtropical regions of the southeastern United States. The taxonomy of the four species of Orthotrichum is discussed and a key given differentiating the species.All of the species that have been found on Thuja leaves except perhaps Catillaria bouteillei are facultative foliicolous species and occur on leaves, only in scattered areas of northwestern North America. Two taxa of lichens, Catillaria bouteillei (Desm.) Zahlbr. and Cetrelia cetrarioides (Del. ex Duby) W. Culb. & C. Culb. (perlatolic acid strain) are reported as new to Canada.


Author(s):  
D T A Symons ◽  
K Kawasaki

Summary The extensive Yukon-Tanana terrane of the northern Canadian Cordillera has been considered controversially to be part of the allochthonous ‘Baja B.C.’ microcontinent or of the para-autochthonous North American cratonic margin during the Mesozoic. Paleomagnetic methods have isolated a very-stable Early Jurassic thermochemical remanent remagnetization in the terrane's felsic Tatlmain batholith and mafic Ragged stock after correction for: 1) rotation from northeast-plunging anticlinal deformation; 2) northerly dipping tectonic tilt of the host rocks; and, 3) northwestward regional translation on the adjacent Tintina transcurrent fault zone. The resulting 196 ± 6 Ma Tatlmain and Ragged paleopoles are 64.9° N, 44.8° E (A95 = 5.9°) and 64.2° N, 58.5° E (A95 = 7.7°), respectively. The YTT paleopoles support para-autochthonous tectonic models that have the YTT: 1) accreting to North America by the Early Jurassic; 2) undergoing non-significant orogen-perpendicular shortening by mid-Early Cretaceous from thrust-faulting; and, then 3) undergoing significant orogen-parallel northward translation of ∼500 km from mid-Early Cretaceous to the Eocene. In contrast, the paleopoles for Stikinia and Quesnellia of the Intermontane Belt show progressive northwestward translation relative to North America by ∼1000 km and a rotation of ∼55° cw since mid-Early Cretaceous. We speculate that ∼500 km of the northward translation is related to dextral motion on the Tintina and Northern Rocky Mountain Trench fault in British Columbia, and that the clockwise rotation is related to upper crustal tectonics in both Yukon and southern British Columbia.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
S.V. Dufton ◽  
R.A. Laird ◽  
K.D. Floate ◽  
J.K. Otani

Abstract Wheat midge, Sitodiplosis mosellana (Géhin) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), is a major pest of wheat (Poaceae) that was first reported in the Peace River region of northwestern Alberta, Canada in 2011. Although parasitism is an important factor of mortality in wheat midge elsewhere, little is known about the prevalence, species, or distribution of wheat midge parasitoids in the Peace River region. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a survey of wheat midge parasitoids in commercial wheat fields across the region in 2016 and 2017. For a given field, parasitism of wheat midge larvae ranged from 36 to 71%. All but one parasitoid (n = 2167) were identified as Macroglenes penetrans (Kirby) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae). The exception was a specimen in the genus Inostemma tentatively identified as I. walkeri Kieffer (Hymenoptera: Platygasteridae). These findings identify parasitism as an important factor that is suppressing populations of wheat midge in the Peace River region, provide the first report of Inostemma walkeri for North America, and provide the first report of this species as a parasitoid of S. mosellana.


1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 1176-1178 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Manabe

An isolated premaxillary tooth of a tyrannosaurid from the Lower Cretaceous section of the Tetori Group, Central Honshu, Japan, complements Siamotyrannus, which is based upon an incomplete postcranium for existence of tyrannosaurids in the Early Cretaceous of Asia. The occurrence of a tyrannosaurid tooth in the Japanese early Early Cretaceous further supports the possibility that tyrannosaurids originated during the Early Cretaceous in Asia and migrated to North America when the two continents were connected via a land bridge during the early Late Cretaceous. Thickening of the premaxillary teeth might have predated the increase in body size in tyrannosaurid evolution.


2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
William I. Ausich ◽  
Robin A. Buckley ◽  
A. Guy Plint

During the middle Albian, a southward incursion of the Boreal Ocean flooded northern Alberta and adjacent British Columbia, forming a large embayment known as the Hulcross Sea. Marine mudstones of the Hulcross Formation and Harmon Member of the Peace River Formation record transgression, whereas sandstones of the Cadotte Member of the Peace River Formation record shoreline regression to the north. Abundant hummocky and swaley lamination in the Cadotte sandstone attest to the influence of storms on a shallow shelf. The Cadotte sandstone undergoes a lateral facies change from mud-free shoreface sandstone in the south to heterolithic offshore facies in the north. An articulated crinoid was found within a hummocky sandstone bed about 15 km seaward (north) of the shoreface-shelf facies transition. The articulated state of the crinoid indicates that it was buried very rapidly, and never exhumed. The arms through 20 mm of the column are preserved, but because the details of the aboral cup are not well preserved, this specimen must be left in open nomenclature. The elliptical columnals with a concave latus in the distal portion of the preserved column ally this specimen to the Bourgueticrinida, although with details of the aboral cup lacking and other characters atypical for Mesozoic bourgueticrinids, the Canadian specimen is placed in Bathycrinidae indeterminate. The oldest previously recorded bathycrinids were from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian), thus this report extends their range to the Lower Cretaceous (Albian).


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