Curator of Lower Vertebrate Paleontology
Thursday, June 19 2008 - Cedar Mountain Project
by Angela Matthias A NEW BASAL HADROSAUR FROM THE LOWER CRETACEOUS CEDAR MOUNTAIN FORMATION OF EASTERN UTAH David Gilpin and Tony DiCroce A new hadrosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation was discovered in May of 2001. This taxon is represented by a well-preserved...
Volunteer Research Projects on the Cedar Mountain Formation →
Thursday, June 19 2008 - Cedar Mountain Project
In the Lab Collecting fossils is only part of the story. They need to be “prepared”, that is cleaned of their encasing rock so that they can be studied. It takes more time to prepare a fossil than it does to collect it. In the lab, the jacket is partially removed so that the fossil remains...
Thursday, June 19 2008 - Cedar Mountain Project
A Short History The Cedar Mountain Formation was originally described as the Cedar Mountain Shales in 1944 by William Stokes. A few battered dinosaur bone fragments were mentioned, but nothing identifiable. The first major discovery was made in 1964 by Lin Ottinger, who ran a rock and fossil shop in...
Thursday, June 19 2008 - Cedar Mountain Project
In the Field How do we find dinosaurs in the Cedar Mountain Formation? Do we just start digging? No, because the chance of finding anything that way is pretty slim. Instead, we let Mother Nature do the digging for us and we just go looking for the fossils She uncovers. Mother Nature does most of Her...
Thursday, June 19 2008 - Cedar Mountain Project
Early Cretaceous dinosaurs in North America are best known from a swath of sedimentary rocks, or strata, from Montana to Texas , as well as from parts of Maryland . One of these strata, the Cedar Mountain Formation in eastern Utah and western Colorado , has produced dinosaurs in abundance only in the...
Thursday, June 19 2008 - Cedar Mountain Project
The Cedar Mountain Formation is a distinct layer of rock that crops out in western Colorado and eastern Utah . It is made from sediments, such as sand and mud, which were altered into rock over geologic time. The original sediments were deposited mostly in rivers and on flood plains, as well as in small...
Thursday, June 19 2008 - Cedar Mountain Project
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Shedding Light on the Dinosaurian "Dark-Ages" Some of the best known dinosaurs include Stegosaurus, Allosaurus and Diplodocus, as well as Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus. Contrary to popular belief, these dinosaurs did not live at the same time, but were separated by millions of years. In fact, there is 87 million years separating Tyrannosaurus, who lived 65 million years ago (mya), and Stegosaurus who lived 152 mya. In contrast, there is only 65 million years separating us, today, from Tyrannosaurus.
Considering all the changes that have taken place in the Earth's climate, the surface of the earth and the animal life since the dinosaurs became extinct 65 mya, it is reasonable to assume that change also occurred during the time between Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. The geological record during that 87 million years is spotty, and the dinosaur record even more so. About 45 million years of that time is called the Early Cretaceous Epoch and it is this part of the time interval that our investigations begin………….
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Tuesday, April 29 2008 - Cedar Mountain Project
The Cedar Mountain Dinosaur Project is an ongoing research project by some of my volunteers and me. Basically, we are trying to identify who the dinosaurs are in the Cedar Mountain Formation of eastern Utah. For more information, please seen the Cedar Mountain Project tab above.
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