The Two Medicine Formation is a geological formation, or rock body, in northwestern Montana and southern Alberta that was deposited between 83.5 ± 0.7 Ma and 70.6 ± 3.4 Ma, during Campanian time. It crops out to the east of the Rocky Mountain Overthrust Belt, and the western portion of this formation is folded and faulted while the eastern part, which thins out into the Sweetgrass Arch, is mostly undeformed plains. Below the formation are the nearshore deposits of the Virgelle Sandstone, and above it is the marine Bearpaw Shale. Throughout the Campanian, the Two Medicine Formation was deposited between the western shoreline of the Late Cretaceous Interior Seaway and the eastward advancing margin of the Cordilleran Overthrust Belt. The Two Medicine Formation is mostly sandstone, deposited by rivers and deltas.
Outcrop of the Two Medicine Formation near "Egg Mountain" in northern Montana
Reconstruction image of a herd of Maiasaura walking along a creek-bed in Two Medicine Formation. Shown are the region's typical conifer, fern and horsetail vegetation, and a volcano erupting in the distance is evocative of the ash layers found in the Two Medicine Formation.
Achelousaurus
Image: Edmontonia rugosidens armour AMNH 5381
The Bearpaw Formation, also called the Bearpaw Shale, is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age. It outcrops in the U.S. state of Montana, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and was named for the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana. It includes a wide range of marine fossils, as well as the remains of a few dinosaurs. It is known for its fossil ammonites, some of which are mined in Alberta to produce the organic gemstone ammolite.
Contact (red arrow) between the underlying marine shales of the Bearpaw Formation and the coastal Horseshoe Canyon Formation.
Bearpaw shale being excavated to recover ammonites for ammolite production.
A specimen of Placenticeras ammolite from the Bearpaw Formation.
Daspletosaurus