Paleoenvironments of the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation in southern Alberta, Canada

Paleoenvironments of the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation are investigated using paleosols preserved in Dinosaur Provincial Park, southern Alberta, Canada. Seven different types of paleosols (pedotypes) are recovered and represent various aspects of an alluvial-coastal floodplain including well-drained distal dry floodplains, better-drained and topographically higher proximal dry floodplains, and seasonal wetlands. The stratigraphic distribution of these paleosols reveals three distinct paleolandscapes: predominantly well-drained habitats low in the formation give way to diverse habitats with numerous landscape positions, eventually becoming coal dominated, hydromorphic, and less diverse due to the increasing proximity of the Bear Paw Sea. Pedofeatures preserved within paleosols correspond to palynological, macrofloral, and sedimentological studies suggesting Dinosaur Park Formation paleoenvironments experienced warm-temperate to subhumid conditions with periods of significant precipitation and seasonality during the Late Cretaceous. The humid south-eastern coast of the United States, the tropical wet lowlands of Colombia, and the seasonal wetland habitats of Bangladesh serve as respectable modern analogs for Dinosaur Provincial Park during the Late Cretaceous.