The Judith River Formation is a

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

-bearing

geologic formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

, and is part of the

Judith River Group The Judith River Group is a group of geologic formations in western North America dating from the late Cretaceous and noted as a site for the extensive excavation of dinosaur fossils. The formation is named after the Judith River in Montana. The ...

. It dates to the Late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

, between 79 and 75.3 million years ago, corresponding to the "Judithian" land vertebrate age. It was laid down during the same time period as portions of the

Two Medicine Formation The Two Medicine Formation is a geological formation, or rock body, in northwestern Montana and southern Alberta that was deposited between and (million years ago), during Campanian (Late Cretaceous) time. It crops out to the east of the Rocky M ...

of MontanaSullivan, R.M. and Lucas, S. G. (2006). "The Kirtlandian land-vertebrate "age"–faunal composition, temporal position and biostratigraphic correlation in the nonmarine Upper Cretaceous of western North America." Pp. 7-29 in Lucas, S. G. and Sullivan, R.M. (eds.), ''Late Cretaceous vertebrates from the Western Interior. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 35''. and the

Oldman Formation The Oldman Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous (Campanian stage) age that underlies much of southern Alberta, Canada. It consists primarily of sandstones that were deposited in fluvial channel and floodplain environments. It was ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. It is an historically important formation, explored by early American

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

s such as

Edward Drinker Cope Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested ...

, who named several dinosaurs from scrappy remains found here on his 1876 expedition (such as ''

Monoclonius ''Monoclonius'' (meaning "single sprout") is a dubious genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur found in the Late Cretaceous layers of the Judith River Formation in Montana, United States, and the uppermost rock layers of the Dinosaur Park Forma ...

''). Modern work has found nearly complete skeletons of the hadrosaurid ''

Brachylophosaurus ''Brachylophosaurus'' ( or ; meaning "short-crested lizard", Greek ''brachys'' = short + ''lophos'' = crest + ''sauros'' = lizard, referring to its small crest) was a mid-sized member of the hadrosaurid family of dinosaurs. It is known from sev ...

''.

Lithology

The Judith River Formation is composed of

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from '' shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology. ...

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

beds,

bentonite Bentonite () is an absorbent swelling clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite (a type of smectite) which can either be Na-montmorillonite or Ca-montmorillonite. Na-montmorillonite has a considerably greater swelling capacity than Ca-mon ...

and

coquina Coquina () is a sedimentary rock that is composed either wholly or almost entirely of the transported, abraded, and mechanically sorted fragments of the shells of mollusks, trilobites, brachiopods, or other invertebrates. The term ''coquina'' ...

s are also observed. Judith River Formation exposure-2

Relationship with other units

The Judith River Formation conformably overlies the Claggett Formation and Pakowki Formation. It is overlain by the

Bearpaw Formation The Bearpaw Formation, also called the Bearpaw Shale, is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age. It outcrops in the U.S. state of Montana, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and was named for the Bear ...

. It is equivalent to the

Belly River Formation The Belly River Group is a stratigraphical unit of Late Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from the Belly River, a tributary of the Oldman River in southern Alberta, and was first described in outcrop ...

in the southern

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part ...

foothills, the

Lea Park Formation The Lea Park Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Late Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Canada. It takes the name from the settlement of Lea Park, Alberta, located north-west of Lloydminster on the banks of the North ...

central Alberta Central Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. Central Alberta is the most densely populated rural area in the province. Agriculture and energy are important to the area's economy. Geography Central Alberta is bordere ...

and the Wapiti Formation in the northwestern plains.

Sub-divisions

Judith River Formation, Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument

The Judith River Formation is divided into four members, the Parkman Sandstone Member, the McClelland Ferry Member, the Coal Ridge member, and the Woodhawk Member. The McClelland Ferry Member (78.7-76.3 Ma) is believed to be equivalent to the

, with the Coal Ridge Member (76.3-75.3 Ma) equivalent to the

Dinosaur Park Formation The Dinosaur Park Formation is the uppermost member of the Belly River Group (also known as the Judith River Group), a major geologic unit in southern Alberta. It was deposited during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, between about 76. ...

Fauna

Faunal list follows a review published by Ashok Sahni in 1972 unless otherwise noted.Sahni, A. (1972). "The vertebrate fauna of the Judith River Formation, Montana." ''Bulletin of the AMNH'', v. 147 article 6: 321-415.

Amphibians

There are three potential species of discoglossid frogs. Hip bones, possibly representing a North American member of the

European spadefoot toad The European spadefoot toads are a family of frogs, the Pelobatidae, with only one extant genus ''Pelobates'', containing six species. They are native to Europe, the Mediterranean, northwestern Africa, and western Asia. Description The Europe ...

family are also known from the formation.

Bony fish

Cartilaginous fish

Ornithischian dinosaurs

Choristoderes

Crocodilians

Lizards

Theropod dinosaurs

Turtles

References

{{Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Central_Plains=yes Campanian Stage Cretaceous Montana Cretaceous geology of South Dakota Stratigraphy of Alberta