Dinosaur National Dinosaur National MonumentMonument

• Dinosaur National Monument comprises 210,000 acres (325 square miles) of park. It straddles Northern Colorado and Utah, with about 2/3 of its land in Colorado

• In 1909 the paleontologist Earl Douglass from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburg was the first scientist to document the many dinosaur bones in the area

• Thousands of bones were discovered on the site• Many were moved to the Carnegie Institute including

some complete skeletons of creatures such as the small Camptosaurus and the plated Stegosaurus

• By 1915 the site was made a national monument, and while there is still excavation bones are no longer removed.

• The bones were found in the Morrison formation • The Morrison formation is in the upper Jurassic

and is one of the richest in dinosaur fauna• The Morrison Formation is extremely

widespread, covering more than 1.5 million sq. Km of western USA. Within its spread it represents a number of environments, from hot, arid desert in the southwestern portions to a much wetter and swampier environment in the north.

• Several rare specimens of dinosaur have been discovered at Dinosaur National Monument

• These specimens include the first cranial material from the Marshosaurus

• portions of an advance embryo of a Camptosaurus

• The longest dinosaur skeleton ever discovered was found here as well

MORRISON FORMATION DINOSAURS FOUND MORRISON FORMATION DINOSAURS FOUND AT DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENTAT DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT

MORRISON FORMATION DINOSAURS FOUND MORRISON FORMATION DINOSAURS FOUND AT DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENTAT DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT

Evolutionary conditionEvolutionary condition

• Plant productivity was high during this time in order to have supported so many large herbivores

• But there is also indication that water was periodically in short supply. This is seen inthe lack of coal, small aquatic vertebrates, and the oxidization of sediments.

• Also a seasonal shift may have necessitated migration for herbivores leading to the regular distribution of fossils over such a broad area.

BibliographyBibliography

• http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/dinosaur/national_monument.html

• http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/paleontology/nps_paleo_vol1/dino.htm

• http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AWLCBwh7aRcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=Dinosaur+national+monument&ots=6zeKCLcNUu&sig=dlDCVWyy8AZvutjc1bBxMRU9Azs#PPA111,M1

• http://www.jstor.org/view/00948373/di995904/99p0244r/0• http://www.jstor.org/view/08831351/sp060071/06x0817k/0• http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/geologic_wonders/7_12list.cfm• http://www.wvup.edu/ecrisp/fieldstudiesinutah.html• http://geoinfo.amu.edu.pl/wpk/pe/a/harbbook/c_i/chap01.html• http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/education/Foos/dino.pdf • http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Fossil_Sites/morrison.htm• http://www.dinoruss.com/de_4/5ca00c3.htm