It comprises continental clastic sediments consisting of light grey fine sandstones, coarse sandstones and glutenites as well as mottled claystones and siltstones. The fine-grained floodplain sediments and the coarse-grained sediments of the point bar formed a series of repeated frequently binary sedimentary rhythms. The “binary structure” of the sedimentary rhythms strongly indicates meandering stream deposits rather than braided river deposits as previously thought. As indicated by the fluvial and lacustrine sedimentation, the Iren Dabasu Formation was a large floodplain terrain with braided rivers and meanders that suppoted extensive vegetation, evidenced on the prominentpalaeosoldevelopment and the numerous remains from herbivorous dinosaurs. Egg nests, caliche and paleosols seem to indicate periodic subaerial intervals, in addition, the presence of plesiosaur and hybodont shark remains are indicatives of a river system with connections to the ocean.
Correlations
Based on the ostracod and charophyte assemblages of the Iren Dabasu Formation, Itterbeeck et al. 2015 suggested a potential correlation with those of the Nemegt Formation, making its age Late Campanian to Early Maastrichtian. However, vertebrates point to an older date than the Campanian-Maastrichtian ages, the supposed deposition of ostracods is likely due to climatic conditions rather than age. The turtleKhunnuchelys is known from both Iren Dabasu and Bayan Shireh equivalent units such as the Bostobe and Bissekty. In addition, a giant caenagnathid similar to Gigantoraptor is now known from the Bayan Shireh Formation at the locality of Tsagan Teg. Like the coeval Bayan Shireh Formation in the Gobi Desert, the dinosaur fauna of the Iren Dabasu Formation includes tyrannosauroids, ornithomimids, therizinosaurs and oviraptorosaurs. However, strong evidence coming from biostratigraphic occurrences seems to support a correlation with the Bayan Shireh Formation, at least, with the upper boundary. For instance, both formations bear similar dinosaur taxa, such as therizinosaurs and ornithomimosaurs, these similirities are even more intensified by the discovery of Gigantoraptor and the giant unnamed caenagnathid from Bayan Shireh. In addition, the potential discovery of Alectrosaurus in both formations seems to be another indicative of a correlation. Consequently, Averianov and Sues estimated the formation to be Santonian in age, roughly about 86 million and 83 million years ago. Guo et al. 2018 also supported a Cenomanian age based on U–Pb, paleomagnetic and biostratigraphic analyses, around 95.8 ± 6.2 million years ago.
Fossil content
The Iren Dabasu Formation is rich on dinosaur fauna, with multiple species described, in the other hand, mammals seem to be extremely absent. Compared, the fossil taxa between Iren Dabasu and Bayan Shireh are very similar, most notably therizinosaurs, tyrannosauroids, oviraptorosaurs and turtles. Although Gigantoraptor is the only described oviraptorosaur from the formation, Funston et al. 2019 described a new avimimid bonebed containing numerous individuals at different growth stages. Nevertheless, the fossils lacked enough diagnosis to be confined to a separate genus and species. Deinonychosaurs are not very common across the formation, however an indeterminate troodontid about the size of Saurornithoides is known from three isolated specimens.
