Prince Creek Formation

Prince Creek Formation Stratigraphic range: Late Cretaceous-Paleocene, 80–60 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
General location of the Prince Creek Formation, in red
Type	Geological formation
Sub-units	Kikak-Tegoseak Quarry, Kogosukruk Tongue, Ocean Point, Coleville River Bluff
Underlies	Sagavanirktok Formation
Overlies	Schrader Bluff Formation
Lithology
Primary	sandstone, mudstone
Other	siltstone, carbonaceous shale, ash-fall
Location
Region	Alaska
Country	USA

The Prince Creek Formation is a geological formation in Alaska with strata from the early Campanian stage of the Upper Cretaceous to the Danian of the Paleocene, between 80 and 60 million years ago. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.

The Prince Creek Formation aged from 80 to 60 million years ago. The Kikak-Tegoseak Quarry, where almost all of the dinosaur fossil are from, is located near the middle of the formation, and is about 70.6 to 69.1 million years ago. A lower section, the Kogosukruk Tongue, ages from 72 to 71 million years ago, in the latest Campanian. The youngest part of the formation is Ocean Point, which extends into the Paleogene, at the end of the Danian, based on the age of ostracods and mollusks. In the middle of the formation is the Coleville River Bluff, which extends from the Late Campanian to the Middle/Late Maastrichtian, in which pollen spores are common.

During the time when the Prince Creek Formation was deposited, the earth was going through a greenhouse phase. The rocks in it are alluvial, and were, at the time of burial, on a muddy coastal plain. Leafy plants, roots and pollen are known from the formation, and they show that trampling by dinosaurs was common. It can be proven that during the Maastrichtian the Prince Creek Formation bordered a large body of water by the presence of gypsum and pyrite in nearby rock. Large amounts of plants material are represented by peridonoid dinocysts, algae, fungal hyphae, fern and moss spores, projectates, Wodehouseia edmontonicola, hinterland bisaccate pollen, and pollen from trees, shrubs, and herbs. Concluded on the large amounts of dinosaurs and flora, the Prince Creek Formation was likely a polar woodland lacking ground ice with dinosaurs dominating and angiosperms towering above them.