A diverse, high-latitude ichnofauna from the Late Cretaceous Wapiti Formation, Alberta, Canada.

Abstract: The Wapiti Formation in west-central Alberta preserves one of the most diverse Late Cretaceous terrestrial track records yet identified in Canada. At least seven morphotypes are recognized and attributed to mammals, small reptiles or amphibians, tyrannosaurids, medium-sized theropods, hadrosaurids, and ankylosaurs. Most tracks occur isolated on slump blocks associated with latest Campanian (Wapiti Formation unit 4) exposures found along Pipestone Creek and Red Willow River. With the possible exception of hadrosaurids, tracks provide some of the most compelling evidence for the occurrence of such taxa within the Wapiti Formation ecosystem. The apparent absence of ceratopsian tracks is surprising considering their bones are abundantly preserved in nearby monodominant bonebeds. The overall faunal signal represented by the Wapiti Formation trackmakers is typical of and consistent with other coeval assemblages in similar environments. The Wapiti Formation tracks, combined with the known fossil bone record, provide another data point in a growing palaeobiogeographical picture of the dinosaur faunas of high-latitude northwestern North America during the Late Cretaceous. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]