The Lance (Creek) Formation is a division of Late Cretaceous (dating to about 69–66 Ma) rocks in the western United States. Named after Lance Creek, Wyoming, the microvertebrate fossils and dinosaurs represent important components of the latest Mesozoic vertebrate faunas. The Lance Formation is Late Maastrichtian in age (Lancianland mammal age), and shares much fauna with the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and North Dakota, the Frenchman Formation of southwest Saskatchewan, and the lower part of the Scollard Formation of Alberta.
The Lance Formation occurs above the Baculites clinolobatus ammonite marine zone in Wyoming, the top of which has been dated to about 69 million years ago, and extends to the K-Pg boundary, 66 million years ago. However, the characteristic land vertebrate fauna of the Lancian age (which take its name from this formation) is only found in the upper strata of the Lance, roughly corresponding to the thinner equivalent formations such as the Hell Creek Formation, the base of which has been estimated at 66.8 million years old.[1]
Description
The formation is described by W.G. Pierce as thick-bedded, buff-colored sandstone, and drab to green shale. It is Upper Cretaceous in age.[2]
The formation varies in thickness from about 90 m (300 ft.) in North Dakota, to almost 600 m (2,000 ft.) in parts of Wyoming.
Depositional environment
The Lance Formation was laid down by streams, on a coastal plain along the edge of the Western Interior Seaway. The climate was subtropical; there was no cold season and probably ample precipitation.
Paleontology
At least tens of thousands of Late Cretaceous vertebrate remains have been recovered from the Lance Formation. Fossils ranging from microscopic elements to extensive bonebeds, with nearly complete, sometimes articulated dinosaur skeletons, have been found.[3] Most other animals known from the formation are freshwater animals, and some are exclusively freshwater forms (for instance, frogs and salamanders). However, marine fossils are also found in the formation, suggesting that the sea was nearby. The bird fauna is mainly composed of orders still existing today.
Coelurosaurs
Birds
Other coelurosaurs
Ornithischia
Ankylosaurs
Marginocephalians
Ornithopods
Indeterminate lambeosaurinae fossils have been found in the Lance Formation.[31]
^Lehman, T. M., Mcdowell, F. W., & Connelly, J. N. (2006). First isotopic (U-Pb) age for the Late Cretaceous Alamosaurus vertebrate fauna of West Texas, and its significance as a link between two faunal provinces. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 26(4), 922–928.
^Pierce, W.G., 1997, Geologic map of the Cody 1 degree x 2 degrees quadrangle, northwestern Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey, Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations Map I-2500, scale 1:250000.
^Silver, Mark (August 2, 2014) "The Dinosaur Surveyors" The American Surveyor Frederick Maryland
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s tNicholas R. Longrich (2011). "Titanoceratops ouranous, a giant horned dinosaur from the Late Campanian of New Mexico". Cretaceous Research. 32 (3): 264–276. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2010.12.007.
^ a b c d e fFederico L. Agnolin (2010). "An avian coracoid from the Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina". Stvdia Geologica Salmanticensia. 46 (2): 99–119. ISSN 0211-8327. S2CID 54675909.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r sHope, S. (2002). "The Mesozoic radiation of Neornithes". In Chiappe, L.M.; Witmer, L.W. (eds.). Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 339–388. ISBN 978-0520200944.
^ a bLongrich, N. 2009. An ornithurine-dominated avifauna from the Belly River Group (Campanian, Upper Cretaceous) of Alberta, Canada. Cretaceous Research, 30(1): 161–177.
^ a b cElzanowski, Paul and Stidham, 2001. An avian quadrate from the Late Cretaceous Lance Formation of Wyoming. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 20(4): 712–719.
^"Table 11.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 215.
^Olson, S.L. and Feduccia, A. 1980. Presbyornis and the origin of the Anseriformes (Aves: Charadriomorphae). Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology no. 323.
^ a bChiappe, L.M.; Walker, C.A. (2002). "Skeletal morphology and systematics of the Cretaceous Euenantiornithes (Ornithothoraces: Enantiornithes)". Mesozoic Birds, above the heads of Dinosaurs. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 240–267. ISBN 978-0520200944.
^ a bElzanowski, A.; Stidham, T.A. (2011). "A Galloanserine Quadrate from the Late Cretaceous Lance Formation of Wyoming". The Auk. 128 (1): 138–145. doi:10.1525/auk.2011.10113.
^ a bBrownstein, C. D. (2024). "A juvenile bird with possible crown-group affinities from a dinosaur-rich Cretaceous ecosystem in North America". BMC Ecology and Evolution. 24 (1). 20. Bibcode:2024BMCEE..24...20B. doi:10.1186/s12862-024-02210-9. PMC 10858573. PMID 38336630.
^"Table 6.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 139.
^Dalman, Sebastian (October 2013). "New Examples of Tyrannosaurus rex from the Lance Formation of Wyoming, United States". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 54 (2): 241–254. doi:10.3374/014.054.0202. S2CID 128608668. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
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^Waterhouse, D. M. (2006). "Parrots in a nutshell: The fossil record of Psittaciformes (Aves)". Historical Biology. 18 (2): 227–238. Bibcode:2006HBio...18..227W. doi:10.1080/08912960600641224. S2CID 83664072.
^Stidham, T. (1998). "A lower jaw from a Cretaceous parrot" (PDF). Nature. 396 (6706): 29–30. Bibcode:1998Natur.396...29S. doi:10.1038/23841. S2CID 204995638.
^The Dinosauria 2nd Edition (David B. Weishampel, Halszka Osmólska and Peter Dodson), p. 584, Dinosaur Distribution (DAVID B. WEISHAMPEL, PAUL M. BARRETT, RODOLFO A. CORIA, JEAN LE LOEUFF, XU XING, ZHAO XIJIN, ASHOK SAHNI, ELIZABETH M. P. GOMANI, CHRISTOPHER R. NOTO)
^Bakker, R.T. (1988). Review of the Late Cretaceous nodosauroid Dinosauria: Denversaurus schlessmani, a new armor-plated dinosaur from the Latest Cretaceous of South Dakota, the last survivor of the nodosaurians, with comments on Stegosaur-Nodosaur relationships. Hunteria 1(3):1–23.(1988).
^ a bThe Dinosauria 2nd Edition (David B. Weishampel, Halszka Osmólska and Peter Dodson), p. 585, Dinosaur Distribution (DAVID B. WEISHAMPEL, PAUL M. BARRETT, RODOLFO A. CORIA, JEAN LE LOEUFF, XU XING, ZHAO XIJIN, ASHOK SAHNI, ELIZABETH M. P. GOMANI, CHRISTOPHER R. NOTO)
^Lyson, Tyler R.; Longrich, Nicholas R. (22 April 2011). "Spatial niche partitioning in dinosaurs from the latest cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of North America". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 278 (1709): 1158–1164. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1444. PMC 3049066. PMID 20943689.
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^Dale A. Russel; Makoto Manabe (2002). "Synopsis of the Hell Creek (uppermost Cretaceous) dinosaur assemblage". In Nichols, Douglas J.; Hartman, Joseph Herbert; Johnson, Kirk R. (eds.). The Hell Creek Formation and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in the Northern Great Plains: An Integrated Continental Record of the End of the Cretaceous · Issue 361. Geological Society of America. p. 170. ISBN 9780813723617. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
^Carpenter, Kenneth; Breithaupt, Brent (September 2, 1986). "Latest Cretaceous Occurrence of Nodosaurid Ankylosaurs (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) in Western North America and the Gradual Extinction of the Dinosaurs". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 6 (3). Taylor & Francis, Ltd.: 251–257. doi:10.1080/02724634.1986.10011619. JSTOR 4523098. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
^ a b"Table 17.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 368.
^ a b c d"Table 23.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 496.
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^Wegweiser, M.; Breithaupt, B.; Badcock, L. E.; Skinner, E.; Scheffield, J. (January 2003). "DINOSAUR SKIN FOSSILS FROM THIS SIDE OF HELL, WYOMING: PALEOENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS OF AN UPPER CRETACEOUS KONSERVAT-LAGERSTATTE IN THE LANCE FORMATION". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 23: 108A.
^Snyder, Keith; McLain, Matthew; Wood, Jared; Chadwick, Arthur (2020-05-21). "Over 13,000 elements from a single bonebed help elucidate disarticulation and transport of an Edmontosaurusthanatocoenosis". PLOS ONE. 15 (5): e0233182. Bibcode:2020PLoSO..1533182S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233182. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 7241792. PMID 32437394.
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