The Danek Edmontosaurus Bonebed: new insights on the systematics, biogeography, and palaeoecology of Late Cretaceous dinosaur communities

Abstract

Vertebrate bonebeds are rich sources of palaeontological information throughout the world (Rogers et al. 2007), and they have long been sources of information on dinosaur anatomy, behaviour, ecology, growth, and variability. Although dinosaur-dominated bonebeds have been known in Alberta for a long time (Brown 1919; Sternberg 1970), they received relatively little attention during the first seven decades that dinosaurs were collected in the province. This was primarily because collectors came to Alberta for the relatively common, well-preserved, articulated dinosaur skeletons that produced both new species and spectacular museum displays (Currie 1981, 1987). Since the beginning of the 1980s, the dinosaur bonebeds of Dinosaur Provincial Park have received considerable attention (Currie and Dodson 1984; Visser 1986; Ryan 1992; Andersen 2000; Ryan et al. 2001; Ryan 2003; Ryan and Russell 2005; Eberth and Getty 2005). However, younger bonebeds from farther north in the province have enjoyed less attention (Ryan et al. 1995, 1998, 2011; Eberth et al. 2013). Two notable exceptions are the Albertosaurus bonebed near Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park (Currie and Koppelhus 2010) and the Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai bonebed along Pipestone Creek near Grande Prairie (Currie et al. 2008). In and around Edmonton, in particular, dinosaur remains have been largely ignored in the published literature (Bell and Campione 2014), despite easy access to outcrops along the North Saskatchewan River and its associated streams and creeks. This special issue of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences increases our knowledge of Edmonton’s urban dinosaurs, especially the iconic (and serendipitously named) hadrosaurid …