Brachyceratops, a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Two Medicine formation of Montana, with notes on associated fossil reptiles

Abstract

The fossils on which this paper is based were collected by me and my assistant, Mr. J. F. Strayrer, during the summer of 1913, while working under the auspices of the United States Geological Survey on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, in northwestern Montana. The specimens were obtained from exposures of the Two Medicine formation along Milk River near the Canadian boundary, in T. 37 N., R. 8 W., about 30 miles northwest of the town of Cut Bank, Mont., and along Two Medicine River in T. 31 N., R. 7 W., about 15 miles southwest of Cut Bank. Vertebrate remains were found at these places in, 1911 and 1912 by Eugene Stebinger, while he was engaged in Geological Survey work, and he was the first to note that the localities are good fields for finding specimens of fossil vertebrates. 2 Although the present collection is small, it is of considerable scientific interest because it supplements the collections made in neighboring areas by other investigators, and because it contains a new genus of Ceratopsia in addition to other recognizable specimens which afford evidence that considerably extends the geologic and geographic ranges of forms heretofore described. The beds from which the collection was made constitute the upper part of the Two Medicine formation, which includes the equivalent of the Judith River formation and some older beds. The fossiliferous beds are also the equivalent of the upper part of the Belly River formation as found in neighboring areas of Canada. The fauna of the American Judith River formation, although diversified, is very inadequately known. Many of the genera and species have been founded on specimens so scant and fragmentary that it is almost impossible to refer to them subsequently discovered and more perfect materials. Recent collections made by L. M. Lambe, of the Canada Geological Survey, and by Barnum Brown, of the American Museum of Natural History, from the Belly River formation along Red Deer River in Canada, however, have placed this fauna on a more solid basis. The purpose of this paper is to give as complete and detailed a description of the skeletal anatomy of Brachyceratops montanensis as the material at hand will permit and to discuss briefly, in systematic order, other forms represented by specimens in the collection made in 1913. I take this opportunity to express my thanks for assistance rendered and for courtesies extended at many times, both in the field and during the preparation of this report, by Messrs. M. R. Campbell, T. W. Stanton, and F. H. Knowlton, and especially by Mr. Eugene Stebinger, all of the United States Geological Survey.