page_title: Hilda mega-bonebed
section_title: Comparison with other bonebeds
hierarchical_section_title: Hilda mega-bonebed / Comparison with other bonebeds
caption_attribution_description: Styracosaurus (meaning "spiked lizard" from Greek styrax/στυραξ 'spike at the butt-end of a spear-shaft' and saurus/σαυρος 'lizard')&#91;1&#93; was a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period
context_page_description: The Hilda mega-bonebed is a complex of fourteen probable Centrosaurus apertus bonebeds discovered near the town of Hilda in Alberta, Canada. It was first described in the scientific literature by David Eberth, Donald Brinkman, and Vaia Barkas in 2010 after more than ten years of research. The Hilda mega-bonebed is significant because the behavior of the preserved dinosaurs themselves was the dominant cause of its existence, rather than the stratum's geological history like most bonebeds. It is also Canada's largest bonebed.
context_section_description: The Hilda Mega-bonebed is about 76 million years old, the same age as the lower Dinosaur Park Formation outcrops of the Dinosaur Provincial Park strata. Monodominant bonebeds of horned dinosaurs like Styracosaurus, Pachyrhinosaurus and Centrosaurus are common in late Cretaceous strata of central and southern Alberta. The close proximity of such a large number of bonebeds has fueled suspicions in some experts that some of the different bonebeds may have actually formed simultaneously in the same events.
  According to Eberth, Brinkman, and Barkas, the idea that several of these bonebeds could have formed together is "difficult to test", however. This difficulty emerges from the complicated nature of local stratigraphy as individual bonebeds are difficult to track for more than a few hundred meters because they are divided by ancient channel deposits. The only certainty regarding the number of events involved in the formation of the bone beds is that more than one occurred since at least one bonebed is known to be preserved in a rock stratum directly over another bonebed. The Hilda bonebeds distinguish themselves by being preserved in a single easily traceable stratum.
  
  In two 2005 scientific papers, Eberth, Getty, and Currie formulated a hypothesis for the formation of the centrosaur bonebeds of Dinosaur Provincial Park. They envisioned common flooding events drowning large numbers of local wildlife, including herds of Centrosaurus and Styracosaurus. Flowing water would distribute these remains across the local floodplain, where they would be buried by later floods.
   Burial was not always permanent as some remains seem to have been uncovered again by later flood activity only to be buried again by yet more later floods. The process of reworking and reburial might have occurred over decades or millennia before the remains were buried for good in their final resting place, which was often in deposits left by channels of flowing water. Eberth, Brinkman, and Barkas thought that the above scenario "appl[ied] particularly well" so the Hilda bonebeds formed as a result of similar processes to those of Dinosaur Provincial Park.
  The bonebeds at Hilda and in Dinosaur Provincial Park also preserve similar quantities and types of plant fossils. The two areas differed, however, in that all of the component bonebeds of the Hilda mega-bonebed, apart from H97-04, were smaller and preserved lower numbers of dinosaurs than those of the park. The centrosaur bonebeds of Dinosaur Provincial Park were often more than 10,000 square meters in area.  These bonebeds tended to preserve centrosaurs in the "hundreds to low thousands" apiece.
caption: Restoration of Styracosaurus albertensis, which is also known from Late Cretaceous bonebeds in Alberta.
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