A ceratopsid-dominated tracksite from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian) at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada

Abstract

The badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park (Alberta, Canada) are renowned for the exceptional abundance and diversity of Campanian-aged vertebrate body fossils, especially dinosaurs. Due to the steep exposures and rapid erosion, dinosaur tracks and trackways are considered extremely rare but have been recorded from a small number of concretionary casts, which pertain to hadrosaurids and a single tyrannosaurid. Here, we document the first multitaxic dinosaur footprint assemblage from the Dinosaur Park Formation based on a new locality that contains multiple individual ceratopsids, two tyrannosaurids, a possible ankylosaurian, and a small theropod-like taxon. Ceratopsid tracks are globally rare but dominate the new tracksite, suggesting gregarious behaviour, which is also supported by their regular spacing and parallel arrangement. The possible ankylosaurian track is identified (in part) on account of having three distinct pedal digits, consistent with the pedal anatomy of several Dinosaur Park ankylosaurids (Euoplocephalus, Dyoplosaurus) and the newly erected ichnotaxon Ruopodosaurus clava but differentiating it from other ankylosaurian tracks (Tetrapodosaurus isp.). Importantly, the new tracks are the first natural moulds (concave epirelief) found in Dinosaur Provincial Park, which, due to the unique geomorphology of the area, can only be recognised in outcrops where there are prominent sediment displacement rims. The new search image outlined here has already resulted in several subsequent trackway discoveries, and has the potential to transform ichnological studies in the Dinosaur Park Formation and related formations where badlands prevail.