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Lab number
GSC-612
Material dated
bison bone collagen; collagène osseux de bison
Taxa dated
Bison bison occidentalis
Locality
Bow River, Cochrane, Alberta
Map sheet
82 O/01
Submitter
A.M. Stalker
Date submitted
March 8, 0098
Measured Age
10760 ± 160
Normalized Age
10840 ± 160
δ13C (per mil)
-20.0
Significance
palaeobiology; paléobiologie
Context
cross-bedded, sandy alluvium, 2 m depth, in the Bighill Creek Formation
Associated taxa
Mammalia: Bison bison occidentalis, Equus conversidens, Ovis canadensis, Cervus elaphus
Comments
EhPo-VP, Griffin Pit: Vertebrates were recovered from the Bighill Creek Formation, exposed in a gravel pit in the middle of three postglacial terraces of the Bow River. The surface of the terrace lies about 23 m above the river and about 8 m below the highest terrace. The vertebrate remains occur in cross-bedded, sandy alluvium about 2 m below the terrace surface. Three discordant ages have been obtained from this pit. GSC-612 and GSC-612-2 are based on two preparations of crushed bone from the same field sample, the pre-treatment procedure differing including a 24-hour leach in 0.1N NaOH for the latter. GSC-988 omitted the NaOH leach and employed bones collected in later field seasons. While it is possible that the Griffin pit contains fossil beds of different ages (Lowdon and Blake, 1975: 18), this would not seem to explain the 3500 year difference in age between two preparations from a single field sample. Contamination during preparation was offered as a possible explanation for the youngest age (Lowdon and Blake, 1970: 68), and Churcher and Stalker believe that the oldest date "should be favoured for the age of the chief bone bed in the Cochrane terraces" (Lowdon and Blake, 1975: 18).

References