Caleb Marshall Brown

Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Drumheller, Alberta · Research

During the Cretaceous, large herbivorous dinosaurs (megaherbivores) acted as keystone species—just as large mammals do today (e.g., elephants)—yet despite their significance in Cretaceous ecosystems, what plant taxa these dinosaurs ate is unclear. The Albian armoured dinosaur Borealopelta markmitchelli (Ornithischia; Nodosauridae) was discovered in...

The fossil record of Late Cretaceous non-hadrosaurid neornithischians from the Western Interior of North America is sparse. Parksosaurus warreni is an early Maastrichtian taxon currently known only from a skull and much of the associated postcranial skeleton and a referred isolated tooth from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada. This...

Schroeder et al. (Reports, 26 February 2021, p. 941) reported a size gap among predatory dinosaur species. We argue that the supporting dataset is skewed toward Late Cretaceous North America and that the gap was likely absent during other intervals in most geographic regions. We urge broader consideration of this hypothesis, with quantitative evalu...

During the Cretaceous, large herbivorous dinosaurs (megaherbivores) acted as keystone species—just as large mammals do today (e.g., elephants)—yet despite their significance in Cretaceous ecosystems, what plant taxa these dinosaurs ate is unclear. The Albian armoured dinosaur Borealopelta markmitchelli (Ornithischia; Nodosauridae) was discovered in...

The end-Cretaceous (K/Pg) mass extinction event is the most recent and well-understood of the “big five” and triggered establishment of modern terrestrial ecosystem structure. Despite the depth of research into this event, our knowledge of upper Maastrichtian terrestrial deposits globally relies primarily on assemblage-level data limited to a few w...

Osteohistological data are commonly used to study the life history of extant and extinct tetrapods. While recent advances have permitted detailed reconstructions of growth patterns, physiology and other features using these data, they are most commonly used in assessments of ontogenetic stage and relative growth in extinct animals. These methods ha...

The first recorded pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from outside of North America, “Troodon” bexelli, was described from the Upper Cretaceous of Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia) Autonomous Region, China, in 1953 based on a partial parietal dome. The holotype, and only, specimen has not been redescribed or figured since the original description and is current...

Intraspecific aggression, or agonism, is a widespread intrasexual selective behavior important to understanding animal behavioral ecology and reproductive systems. Such behavior can be studied either by direct observation or inferred from wound/scar frequency in extant species but is difficult to document in extinct taxa, limiting understanding of...

Mammalian carnivores show a higher degree of prey bone utilization relative to non-avian theropod dinosaurs, with this major ecological difference reflected in the frequency and morphology of tooth marks in modern and Cenozoic assemblages relative to Mesozoic ones. As such, prey bone utilization (i.e., gnawing, bone-breaking, osteophagy) may repres...

The unexpected discovery of non-avian dinosaurs from Arctic and Antarctic settings has generated considerable debate about whether they had the capacity to reproduce at high latitudes—especially the larger-bodied, hypothetically migratory taxa. Evidence for dinosaurian polar reproduction remains very rare, particularly for species that lived at the...

Mapping of fossil sites represents an important aspect of palaeontology, because the data collected are required for interpreting the taphonomic and depositional history of the site, as well as the palaeoecology and behavior of the organisms. Methods for mapping and documenting certain vertebrate fossil sites, such as trackways, have drastically ch...

The exceptionally well-preserved holotype of the armoured dinosaur Borealopelta markmitchelli (Ornithischia; Nodosauridae) from the Early Cretaceous (Clearwater Formation) of northern Alberta preserves a distinct mass within the abdominal cavity. Fourteen independent criteria (including: co-allochthony, anatomical position, gastroliths) support the...

Upper Cretaceous tyrannosauroid material from North America was primarily known from upper Campanian through Maastrichtian formations until the recent discovery of derived tyrannosaurid taxa from lower-to-mid Campanian deposits in the southwestern United States. However, diagnostic material from contemporaneous deposits further north in Alberta (Ca...

Styracosaurus albertensis is an iconic centrosaurine horned dinosaur from the Campanian of Alberta, Canada, known for its large spike-like parietal processes. Although described over 100 years ago, subsequent discoveries were rare the last few decades, during which time several new skulls, skeletons, and bonebeds were found. Here we described an im...

Fossils were thought to lack original organic molecules, but chemical analyses show that some can survive. Dinosaur bone has been proposed to preserve collagen, osteocytes, and blood vessels. However, proteins and labile lipids are diagenetically unstable, and bone is a porous open system, allowing microbial/molecular flux. These 'soft tissues' hav...

Fossils were thought to lack original organic molecules, but chemical analyses show that some can survive. Dinosaur bone has been proposed to preserve collagen, osteocytes, and blood vessels. However, proteins and labile lipids are diagenetically unstable, and bone is a porous open system, allowing microbial/molecular flux. These ‘soft tissues’ hav...

Bite marks on bones can provide critical information about interactions between carnivores and animals they consumed (or attempted to) in the fossil record. Data from such interactions is somewhat sparse and is hampered by a lack of records in the scientific literature. Here, we present a rare instance of feeding traces on the frill of a juvenile c...

Fossils were long thought to lack original organic material, but the discovery of organic molecules in fossils and sub-fossils, thousands to millions of years old, has demonstrated the potential of fossil organics to provide radical new insights into the fossil record. How long different organics can persist remains unclear, however. Non-avian dino...

The horned Ceratopsidae represent one of the last radiations of dinosaurs, and despite a decade of intense work greatly adding to our understanding of this diversification, their early evolution is still poorly known. Here, two postorbital horncores from the upper Foremost Formation (Campanian) of Alberta are described, and at ∼78.5 Ma represent so...

Poster presentation

Although the evolution and function of “exaggerated” bony projections in ornithischian dinosaurs has been subject to significant debate recently, our understanding of the structure and morphology of their epidermal keratinized coverings is greatly limited. The holotype of Borealopelta , a new nodosaurid ankylosaur, preserves osteoderms and extensiv...

The expedited collection of a hadrosaur specimen in a total of six days from an ammolite mine near Lethbridge, AB. Preparation of this specimen has revealed this specimen is the most complete hadrosaur recovered from the Bearpaw Fm to date.

Predator-prey dynamics are an important evolutionary driver of escalating predation mode and efficiency, and commensurate responses of prey [1-3]. Among these strategies, camouflage is important for visual concealment, with countershading the most universally observed [4-6]. Extant terrestrial herbivores free of significant predation pressure, due...

The causes, rate, and selectivity of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction continue to be highly debated [1-5]. Extinction patterns in small, feathered maniraptoran dinosaurs (including birds) are important for understanding extant biodiversity and present an enigma considering the survival of crown group birds (Neornithes) and the extinction of their...

The horned dinosaur Centrosaurus apertus from the Belly River Group (Campanian) is represented by multiple articulated skulls and skeletons, and is particularly notable for its occurrence in dozens of large-scale monodominant bonebeds, which have been found in the Dinosaur Park Formation across southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Here we present a d...

Ceratopsid (horned) dinosaurs are an iconic group of large-bodied, quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs that evolved in the Late Cretaceous and were largely restricted to western North America [1-5]. Ceratopsids are easily recognized by their cranial ornamentation in the form of nasal and postorbital horns and frill (capped by epiossifications); thes...

Quantitative morphometric analyses, particularly ontogenetic allometry, are common methods used in quantifying shape, and changes therein, in both extinct and extant organisms. Due to incompleteness and the potential for restricted sample sizes in the fossil record, palaeobiological analyses of allometry may encounter higher rates of error. Differe...

Tooth counts are commonly recorded in fossil diapsid reptiles and have been used for taxonomic and phylogenetic purposes under the assumption that differences in the number of teeth are largely explained by interspecific variation. Although phylogeny is almost certainly one of the greatest factors influencing tooth count, the relative role of intra...

Body mass is strongly related to both physiological and ecological properties of living organisms. As a result, generating robust, broadly applicable models for estimating body mass in the fossil record provides the opportunity to reconstruct palaeobiology and investigate evolutionary ecology on a large temporal scale. A recent study provided stron...

The analysis of morphological diversity frequently relies on the use of multivariate methods for characterizing biological shape. However, many of these methods are intolerant of missing data, which can limit the use of rare taxa and hinder the study of broad patterns of ecological diversity and morphological evolution. This study applied a mutli‐d...

Relative to large-bodied dinosaurs, the diversity of small-bodied dinosaurs from the Campanian of North America is poorly understood due to a lack of well-preserved skeletons. We document the first articulated remains, as well as the first cranial bones, of non-iguanodontian ornithopods from the Belly River Group of Alberta. The geologically oldest...

Taphonomic biases dictate how organisms are represented in the fossil record, but their effect on studies of vertebrate diversity dynamics is poorly studied. In contrast to the high diversity and abundance of small-bodied animals in extant ecosystems, small-bodied dinosaurs are less common than their large-bodied counterparts, but it is unclear whe...

A study of the distribution of dinosaurian body masses in the Dinosaur Park Formation (DPF; Campanian; southern Alberta), reveals a prominent negative skew; a pattern distinct from those of modern terrestrial faunas. We find a direct and robust correlation between taxon size (estimated live body mass) and known completeness. There is a clear dichot...

Codron et al. [[1][1]] invoke an ecological model of size-specific competition in dinosaurs to explain an apparent bimodal distribution within Dinosauria, and find ‘intermediate-sized taxa’ (1–1000 kg) are prone to extinction. Although the authors take an interesting approach, we argue that

Missing data are an unavoidable problem in biological data sets and the performance of missing data deletion and estimation techniques in morphometric data sets is poorly understood. Here, a novel method is used to measure the introduced error of multiple techniques on a representative sample. A large sample of extant crocodilian skulls was measure...

Associated postcranial skeletons of pachycephalosaurids, most notably those of Stegoceras and Homalocephale, reveal enigmatic osseous structures not present in other tetrapod clades. The homology and functional significance of these structures have remained elusive as they were originally interpreted to be abdominal ribs or gastralia, and more rece...

A small, articulated basal ornithopod skeleton from the Frenchman Formation (late Maastrichtian) of Saskatchewan (RSM P 1225.1), previously referred to the taxon Thescelosaurus, differs from both recognized species of this taxon (Thescelosaurus neglectus and Thescelosaurus garbanii). The differences are taxonomically informative and we recognize th...

A diverse and prolific record of polar dinosaurs comes from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) sediments of the Prince Creek Formation exposed on Alaska’s North Slope. Previous assignment of basal ornithopod material from this formation has been based solely on teeth, which have either been referred to “hypsilophodontid” indet. or Thesc...

Specimens of Stegoceras validum used in the allometric analyses and their measurements. (DOC)

Description of measurements. (DOC)

HRCT methods. (DOC)

Historically, studies of pachycephalosaurs have recognized plesiomorphically flat-headed taxa and apomorphically domed taxa. More recently, it has been suggested that the expression of the frontoparietal dome is ontogenetic and derived from a flat-headed juvenile morphology. However, strong evidence to support this hypothesis has been lacking. Here...

The cranial roof ornamentation and the degree of neurocentral closure in the holotype of the pachycephalosaurian dinosaur Homalocephale calathocercos is described in detail for the first time in order to assess its ontogenetic status and taxonomic validity. The parietosquamosal ornamentation consists of five primary nodes along the posterior margin...

Considerable controversy surrounds the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of Maastrichtian basal neornithischian taxa from North America. Discovery of previously unrecognized cranial material from the paratype specimen of Thescelosaurus neglectus (USNM 7758), along with the examination of two new specimens that preserve nearly complete skulls...

Distinct textures have been observed on the surface of the parietals and squamosals of centrosaurine dinosaurs. It is widely held that they exhibit an ontogenetic succession and can be used as an index of progressive age-related changes. To date, the pattern of texture expression across the parietals and squamosals has not been traced. The pattern...