The first monodominant hadrosaur bonebed from the Oldman Formation (Campanian) of Alberta
Evan E. Scott (Author), Beverly Saylor (Degree supervisor), Michael Ryan (Degree supervisor), OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, Case Western Reserve University Geological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University (Degree granting institution)
A monodominant Gryposaurus bonebed located in the Oldman Formation (Campanian) of southern Alberta represents a parautochthonous assemblage of juvenile-sized individuals that are preserved in a fine-grained mudstone within an overbank sequence. Histological examination of six tibiae confirms the diagnosis of all individuals as juveniles, although histological variability indicative of two age classes within the bonebed suggests that members did not all originate from the same brood. Bone microstructure data indicates that these gryposaurs experienced rapid growth and achieved approximately 70% of adult size before the end of their second year. The parautochthonous nature of the bonebed, and the lack of small neotate material and large adult material, suggests that the bonebed represents an isolated group of juveniles. This group may have separated itself from a larger social grouping, possibly as an evolutionary strategy to allow greater allocation of resources to altricial hatchlings
Thesis, Dissertation, English, 2015
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 2015