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The Milk River Formation is a near- shore to terrestrial sedimentary unit deposited during the Late Cretaceous (late Santonian to early Campanian) in southern Alberta. It is equivalent to the marine Lea Park Formation of eastern Alberta, and the Eagle and Telegraph Creek Formations of north-central Montana, and to the upper part of the Niobrara Formation in Kansas. In Alberta, the Milk River Formation is subdivided into the Telegraph Creek, Virgelle, and Deadhorse Coulee Members. The formation has produced an extensive but little known vertebrate fauna (see Table). Radiometric dates place deposition of the Milk River Formation between ~84.5 Ma and 83.5 Ma (Payenberg et al. 2002). == Members == *Telegraph Creek – The lowest member, it represents mudstone deposited just offshore in a marine setting. It has produced the ammonite index fossil Desmoscaphites bassleri (Payenberg et al. 2002), which has an age of ~84.5 Ma. *Virgelle – Overlying the Telegraph Creek Member, it is a massive cliff-forming yellow to white sandstones. It was deposited in a shoreface environment, including beach, etc. (Payenberg et al. 2002). *Deadhorse Coulee – Consists of shales, siltsones, sandstones, and coal beds. The Member was deposited in rivers, floodplains and swamps. Most of the vertebrate fossils come from this member. There are some dinosaur remains from the Formation, but these are not very well known. A more concerted effort at locating specimens would undoubtedly produce many new taxa. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Milk River Formation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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