Dinosaur Park Formation

The Dinosaur Park Formation is the uppermost member of the Belly River Group in southern Alberta, Canada, made up of sandstone in its lower portion and mudstone with siltstone above, along with bentonite and coal, reaching about 70 meters thick at its type location. It dates to the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, between roughly 76.5 and 74.4 million years ago, accumulating in alluvial and coastal-plain environments as ancient river systems carried sediment eastward toward the Bearpaw Sea, part of the Western Interior Seaway. The formation is well exposed in the badlands flanking the Red Deer River at Dinosaur Provincial Park, its namesake locality and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is renowned for dense concentrations of dinosaur skeletons, both articulated and disarticulated, often found with preserved soft tissues, and it also preserves abundant fish, turtles, crocodilians and plant remains, making it one of the most paleontologically productive formations in North America. This entity documents the Dinosaur Park Formation specifically as a geological formation, a Late Cretaceous alluvial and coastal-plain sedimentary sequence.