1990/10/01 by Raymond R. Rogers · 4 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Taphonomy #Cretaceous #Geology #Paleontology #Archaeology #Geography
paper · doi:10.2307/3514834
openalex publication_date 1990/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/29
Two bone beds, Canyon Bone Bed and Dino Ridge Quarry, have yielded the near-exclusive remains of a new species of Styracosaurus (Family Ceratopsidae); the third bone bed, Westside Quarry, is dominated by a new species of Prosaurolophus (Family Hadrosauridae). Evidence supporting a drought hypothesis includes: 1) a seasonal, semiarid paleoclimate, 2) associated caliche horizons, 3) aqueous depositional settings, 4) apparent age distributions characteristic of modern drought mortality (CBB and DRQ), and 5) the intraformational recurrence of low-diversity bone beds. Several alternative scenarios were considered, but drought proved most reasonable in light of the enhanced probability of preserving drought assemblages, and the species-selective and recurrent nature of modern drought mortality