Emily L. BamforthPhilip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum · Palaeontology
Emily L. Bamforth
PhD
About
48
Publications
8,635
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118
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I am a palaeotologist and curator at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Wembley, Alberta, Canada. My research focuses on paleobiodiversity and paleoenvironmental interactions, paleobotany and paleoclimate, and the end-Creacteous mass extinction. I also have an interest in early life, specifically the Ediacaran period. I hold a PhD from McGill University, an MSc from Queens University, and a BSc from the University of Alberta.
Additional affiliations
January 2021 - present
University of Saskatchewan
Position
- Adjunct Professor
Description
- I am an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan. I currently supervise undergraduate and graduate students, sit on supervisory committees, and have facilitated and led field schools.
February 2014 - December 2021
Position
- Palaeontolgist
Description
- I currently work out of the RSM T. rex Discovery Centre in Eastend.
January 2010 - September 2013
Education
September 2008 - September 2013
September 2005 - July 2008
September 2001 - April 2005
Publications
Publications (48)
Abstract: Fossil Tourism is a major industry. Globally, people are drawn in their thousands to see, and sometimes to collect, fossils of charismatic animals such as dinosaurs in situ. While fossil tourism provides unparalleled opportunities for scientific outreach, increased visitation to paleontologically significant areas can lead to the unintent...
Abstract: The Late Cretaceous mosasaur Prognathodon has a global distribution, with specimens found in Campanian and Maastrichtian marine deposits in Europe, New Zealand, North America, and the Middle East. Canadian Prognathodon material had hitherto been reported only from Alberta. Herein is described the first partial skull and post-crania of Pro...
The early Paleocene Ravenscrag Formation in southern Saskatchewan overlies the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Frenchman Formation and is coeval with the Tullock Formation in Montana. The stratigraphy of the Ravenscrag Formation preserves floodplain and low-energy swamp environments and is known for rich fossil plant deposits. Vertebrate fossils,...
Abstract: The latest Mesozoic and earliest Cenozoic rocks of southwest Saskatchewan, Canada contain some of the finest exposures of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Boundary in North America. The Frenchman Formation (66 Ma) represents a northern extension of the upper Hell Creek Formation in Montana, with the overlying Paleocene Ravenscrag Formation...
Ceratopsid bonebeds, particularly those of centrosaurines from Alberta such as Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, Centrosaurus apertus, and Styracosaurus albertensis have provided insight into gregarious behaviour and habitat preference. These inferences are based on large sample sizes across all ontogenetic stages and the lithology of these assemblages. C...
The Late Cretaceous (80 – 68Ma) Wapiti Formation of northwestern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia spans an interval of time from the lower Campanian to the upper Maastrichtian. The formation is divided in five units, with Units 3 and 4 being the most fossiliferous. The dinosaur communities within these terrestrial units are significant bec...
Crocodyliforms were a common component of the latest Cretaceous floodplain ecosystem in north-central United States and southwestern Canada. Borealosuchus and Brachychampsa are the best represented taxa, known from numerous specimens, some of which are complete. “Thoracosauridae”, a group of gavialoid-like crocodyliforms are extremely rare from thi...
The horned dinosaur genus Torosaurus has a challenging history, relating both to its geographic distribution and taxonomy. Whereas Torosaurus has been reported from Upper Maastrichtian deposits in Canada, which would mark the northernmost range of the genus, recent work has questioned the generic identity of the implicated material, which primarily...
The horned dinosaur genus Torosaurus has a challenging history, relating both to its geographic distribution and taxonomy. Whereas Torosaurus has been reported from Upper Maastrichtian deposits in Canada, which would mark the northernmost range of the genus, recent work has questioned the generic identity of the implicated material, which primarily...
GeoExplore Saskatchewan is a new website designed for teachers, students, and anyone interested in exploring the geoscience of the province. Launched in 2020, the website is a digital redesign of the 2002 Geological Highway Map of Saskatchewan. GeoExplore Saskatchewan allows visitors to virtually explore the province’s landscape and geology through...
DOI: 10.18435/vamp29374
Though relatively uncommon, sea turtles (Superfamily Chelonioidae + Family Protosetgidae + Toxochelys) are an intriguing component of western Canada’s Cretaceous marine faunas. Studies of sea turtle diversity patterns within the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Sea suggest, for reasons possibly related to climate, that thes...
The latest Mesozoic rocks of Chambery Coulee in southwest Saskatchewan have offered insight into the paleobiodiversity and paleoenvironment leading up to the end-Cretaceous (K-Pg) mass extinction event. The late Maastrichtian (Lancian) Frenchman Formation, coeval with the Hell Creek and Lance formations in the USA contain a mixture of fluvial-flood...
The latest Mesozoic and earliest Cenozoic rocks of southwest Saskatchewan contain some of the finest exposures of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Boundary in North America. The Frenchman Formation (66 Ma) represents a northern extension of the latest Maastrichtian upper Hell Creek Formation into Canada, with the overlying Paleocene Ravenscrag Forma...
Large-bodied ceratopsians from the latest Maastrichtian (66 Ma) of North America are traditionally classified into two genera, Triceratops and Torosaurus. Debate exists as to whether these belong to a single ontogenetic series, represent one taxon with taphonomic/pathologic variances, or truly represent distinct taxonomic groups. The Frenchman Form...
Dinosaur Provincial Park (DPP), Alberta contains one of the world’s best-preserved Late Cretaceous ecosystems, recording a coastal floodplain environment undergoing a 1.5 million-year period of major climatic change at a paleolatitude of 60 to 65 N. While the relative paleoclimate of this ecosystem has been estimated through palynological assembla...
A marine bonebed from the Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) Bearpaw – Dinosaur Park Formation transition, containing both micro- and macrovertebrate fossils and trace fossils, was discovered in west-central Saskatchewan, Canada. The bonebed formed during transgression of the Western Interior Seaway, with the stratigraphy of the area displaying extensive...
That the province of Saskatchewan contains Late Campanian-aged fossil-bearing deposits coeval with those in Alberta and Montana is not new information. These Saskatchewan deposits had been documented in a number of palaeontological publications (e.g. Eberth et al., 1990, Tokrayk and Harrington 1992), and were referred to generally as the ‘Judith Ri...
In 1874, geologist George Mercer Dawson was leading a surveying team along the 49th parallel, charting the region of the western frontier disputably claimed by the Americans as part of the Louisiana Purchase. As the teams entered the Canadian prairies, Dawson, whose father, Sir William Dawson, was a paleobotanist, recognized exquisite carbonized le...
Understanding paleobiodiversity patterns is critically important in discerning the drivers of evolution, diversification and extinction that have shaped life on Earth. Spatial beta (‘among-site’) diversity analyses elucidate patterns that exist among biological communities across geographical regions, and are often difficult to study in the fossil...
The large ceratopsian Triceratops is the most common dinosaur taxa found in the latest Maastrichtian of central North America (Goodwin et al. 2006). In the upper Hell Creek Formation of Montana, coeval with the Frenchman Formation of southern Saskatchewan, Triceratops account for 70% of all dinosaur material recovered (Horner et al., 2011). While t...
Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta contains one of the world’s best-preserved and most complete Late Cretaceous terrestrial paleoecosystems. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its global paleontological significance, Dinosaur Provincial Park contains forty-five dinosaur species, as well as numerous other vertebrate and inve...
A New Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian, Late Cretaceous) Microvertebrate Locality From Southwest Saskatchewan
The Dinosaur Park Formation has been well-studied in Alberta for decades, particularly in Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, from which the formation gets its name. Although deposits from the same time period have be...
A ∼42 m section of Late Cretaceous Upper Campanian sediments in Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park, southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada, represents the easternmost outcrop of the Dinosaur Park Formation in the Western Interior Basin. Herein we document a new microvertebrate locality from the upper part of this formation that shows high diversity in...
The late Cretaceous Bearpaw Formation of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana documents a period in geological time when the Western Interior Sea inundated these areas. This warm, shallow inland sea supported a wide range of vertebrate and invertebrate life, preserved today as significant fossil deposits within the Bearpaw Formation. In southwest Sask...
Marine environments are generally readily identifiable in the geological record. However, marine influences on terrestrial ecosystems can be more difficult to detect, especially in cases where such influences are not expected. The Frenchman Formation of southwest Saskatchewan, Canada represents the last half-million years of the Maastrichtian (‘Lan...
The Campanian-aged Dinosaur Park Formation (DPF) of Alberta, Canada is one of the
most productive and well-studied dinosaur bearing units in the world. While the
formation is present in Saskatchewan, outcrop is sparser, widely distributed, and difficult
to access. As it has been less well studied, Saskatchewan’s DPF is generally less well
understoo...
Adaptive escalation (Vermeij 1987) is an evolutionary theory proposing that an increased predation rate creates increased competition between predators, leading to an increase in predator taxonomic diversity, which in turn leads to a further increase in predation. This ‘run away’ predation leads to an increase in predator avoidance in prey species,...
Fossil turtles are widespread and abundant in late Cretaceous deposits in North America (Holroyd and Hutchison, 2001), making them ideal for the study of paleobiodiversity. In practice, turtle genera are readily identifiable from fragmentary remains, which is a distinct advantage when dealing with fossils from microvertebrate sites. As shell fragme...
Plants as Paleoclimate Estimators Understanding the paleoenvironment is a critical component of any paleoecological study. We know from the modern world that the environment-on global, regional, local and micro spatial scales-dictates the composition and functioning of ecosystems. We know also that climate is an intricate part of environment, and i...
The Pasquia Palaeontological Site (PPS) is a Provincial Heritage Property on the Carrot River, in the Pasquia Hills region of the Manitoba Escarpment, located in east-central Saskatchewan, Canada. The PPS represents one of the best known records of Cenomanian and Turonian-aged (92–98 Ma) marine life in Canada, with faunas comprised of a wide divers...
With the centennials of the Canadian (2011) and American (2016) National Park systems, much discussion has been generated about the shifting relevance of National Parks to modern society. Whereas parks were originally established to protect natural ecosystems/heritage sites, they now also strive to provide meaningful visitor experiences1. Parks Can...
The latest Mesozoic and earliest Cenozoic rocks of southwest Saskatchewan contain some of the finest exposures of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Boundary in North America. The upper Maastrichtian (‘Lancian’) Frenchman Formation, coeval with the Hell Creek and Lance formations in the USA, and the overlying Paleocene Ravenscrag Formation preserve a...
Extensive exposures of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Boundary can be found in southwest Saskatchewan, representing the conformity between the Masstrichtian Frenchman Formation and Paleocene Ravenscrag Formation. The best place to find these boundary sections is in Grasslands National Park, Chambery Coulee (home of the complete T. rex skeleton, ‘S...
The latest Mesozoic and earliest Cenozoic deposits of southwest Saskatchewan contain some of the finest exposures of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Boundary in North America. Containing no major unconformities, the upper Maastrichtian (‘Lancian’) Frenchman Formation and the overlying Paleocene Ravenscrag Formation represent a continuous sequence o...
Paleomacroecology, the study of large-scale ecological patterns in the fossil record, is an important interface between paleontology and neobiology. Research in this field seeks to not only discern paleobiodiversity patterns, but also applies modern ecological theory to link these patterns to the abiotic and biotic processes that created them. Stud...
The fossil-rich deposits of the latest Maastrichtian Frenchman Formation (66Ma) of Saskatchewan, Canada, coeval with the upper Hell Creek and Lance formations in the USA, contain a complete and continuous record of terrestrial vertebrate diversity during the last half-million years leading up to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Directly associat...
Coupling paleobiodiversity patterns to paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental drivers is a daunting task for a paleoecologist. Although many geochemical proxies exist to determine high-resolution climate data, confidently linking these climate estimates to biodiversity patterns -particularly on fine spatial and temporal scales -can be tenuous. In thi...
The fossil-rich deposits of the uppermost Maastrichtian (66 Ma) Frenchman Formation of southern Saskatchewan, Canada provide a detailed, continuous record of terrestrial ecosystem dynamics during the last half-million years leading up to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Paleoenvironmental interpretations for the Frenchman Formation are here refi...
The timing and cause of the Cretaceous mass extinction has been the subject of much debate for decades. Preservational, geographic and taphonomic biases render trends in biodiversity difficult to assess, and complicate the coupling of these trends with abiotic drivers. Here a holistic, multidisciplinary approach is used to elucidate the spatial and...
Hapsidophyllas flexibilis new genus and species and Frondophyllas grandis new genus and species are rare Ediacaran (ca. 565 Ma) rangeomorph forms, herein termed "hapsidophyllids," which are endemic to Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, Canada. These two taxa are highly disparate in overall morphology, the former being a low-level, multibranched "network...
Pectinifrons abyssalis new genus and species is an early Ediacaran (ca. 565 Ma) rangeomorph from the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. It is known from more than 200 specimens from the Mistaken Point and Trepassey formations, and is typically preserved as a comb-shaped ridge on the top of mudstone beds beneath volcanic ashfall tuffs. Morphologic an...
Abstract Rangeomorphs,are a distinct group of millimeter- tometer-scale soft-bodied macrofossils that are restricted to the latter half of the late Neoproterozoic Ediacaran Period (635Ma- 542Ma). These fossils represent an extinct higher level taxon characterized by a modular construction based on a single architectural unit: the centimeter-scale,c...
Projects
Projects (5)
The objective of this project is to study the taphonomy of bioeroded ceratopsian (Triceratops prorsus) bones from Saskatchewan using ichnologic and sequence stratigraphic evidence. Studying the sequence stratigraphy and osteic bioerosion trace fossils associated with Triceratops is important to understand how the paleoenvironment changed leading up to the K-Pg mass extinction event, the way the depositional environments affect the preservation of Triceratops bones and assessing the paleoecology of invertebrates in the Frenchman Formation by uncovering their hidden diversity via trace fossil evidence.
