Lopsidinium gen. nov., a dinoflagellate cyst from the Early Cretaceous (Early and Middle Albian) of northern Alberta, Canada

Abstract

Two species of a distinctive new genus of dinoflagellate cyst are described from the Early Cretaceous of northern Alberta, Canada. The genotype, Lopsidinium subrisum, comes from the Lower Albian Clearwater Formation, in wells drilled to extract the enormous heavy oil and bitumen resources of the Athabasca and Cold Lake Oil Sands areas, northeastern Alberta. The second species, Lopsidinium paxense, occurs in the Middle Albian, upper Loon River Formation exposed in the banks of the Peace River, northwestern Alberta. Lopsidinium subrisum occurs in assemblages of dinoflagellate cysts associated with brackish water and it is likely that L. paxense is derived from similar environments.

Keywords:

• dinoflagellate cysts
• palaeoecology
• taxonomy
• Early Cretaceous (Albian)
• Alberta, Canada

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Ben Hathway of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for allowing me to use information from his study of the Loon River Formation, and for advice and help with the correlation of the Cretaceous formations across northern Alberta. I am grateful to Drs. Frances Hein and Mike Berhane of the ERCB for their help with the lithostratigraphy of the Cold Lake area. I wish to thank Dr. Daryl Wightman, (Rock Doc Consulting Ltd.), for fruitful discussions on oil sands stratigraphy and for critically reading parts of the manuscript. Throughout the writing of this paper, Dr. Thomas Demchuk, (ConocoPhillips Company), proffered much encouragement and made many helpful suggestions. I am indebted to Drs Rob Fensome and Henrik Nøhr-Hansen for taking on the onerous task of reviewing my manuscript and suggesting many improvements.

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Notes on contributors

Graham Dolby

After obtaining his PhD from the University of Sheffield in 1971, the author worked for West Australian Petroleum Pty (WAPET) in Perth, Western Australia before moving to the Calgary office of Robertson Research. He has been an independent consultant since 1986, working on projects from Canada and many other countries. His current interests are in the Mesozoic–Cenozoic of the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea, the Mesozoic of Alberta and the Alberta Oil Sands.