Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
| Online Publication Date: 05 Nov 2007
Stranger in a Strange Land: A Brief History of the Paleontological Operations at Dinosaur National Monument
Stranger in a Strange Land: A Brief History of the Paleontological Operations at Dinosaur National Monument
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Page Range: 34 – 40
Discovered in 1909 by Earl Douglass of the Carnegie Museum, the Dinosaur Quarry (DQ) at Dinosaur National Monument has proven to be one of our best windows into the large vertebrate community of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic). To date, the remains of several hundred individuals belonging to sixteen species of dinosaurs and other vertebrates have been found. The DQ has produced more species, skulls, juveniles, and complete skeletons than any other Morrison Formation quarry. Between 1909 and 1924, the DQ was actively quarried and over 700,000 lbs. of fossils were collected. In 1958 the National Park Service enclosed the unexcavated area of the DQ within a building with both exhibits and research facilities. Since that time over 2,000 bones have been uncovered and left in situ, just as they were deposited. The concept of an enclosed quarry with an in situ exhibit of fossils has been successfully followed at a number of parks both within the U.S. and abroad.
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