CARD

Locality: right (south) bank of the Red Deer River, 590 m asl, 15 m above river level, 100 m below the general prairie level, just above the confluence with the South Saskatchewan River, southeastern Alberta
Map sheet: 72 L/16

Significance: palaeobiology; paléobiologie
Context: CPR Pit, sand and gravel terrace, 2-4 m depth
Associated taxa: Mammalia: Mammuthus imperator, Mammuthus primigenius, Equus conversidens, Equus scotti, Rangifer tarandus, Camelops hesternus?, Bison antiquus?

Comments: EfOm-VP, Empress: This Canadian Pacific Railway gravel pit contains abundant bones which were washed into place and thus were rounded, commonly damaged, and widely dispersed in coarse gravel. Stalker notes that the discrepancy between the two dates is unexplained, although GSC-1199 may have suffered contamination during collection by three persons; the sample was also soft, damp, and weathered, with modern rootlets that were removed during preparation. GSC-1387 appears more reliable, but both dates are substantially older than expected, and neither allows sufficient time for post-Classical Wisconsin incision of the large Red Deer valley. The possibility of the valley have been cut earlier must now be considered. In addition, the presence of a large, well developed fauna so close to the time of the Classical Wisconsin glaciation seems improbable. If GSC-1387 is correct, the fauna may have lived in a prolonged interval between two advances of Wisconsinan ice. Burns (1996: 110) takes a different view, suggesting that both dates are too young.

Canada / AB / EfOm-? (Bindloss) / GSC-1387