Jurassic National Monument

Last updated
Jurassic National Monument
Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry entrance.jpg
Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry Visitor Center
USA Utah location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Map of Utah
Location Emery County, Utah
Nearest city Cleveland
Coordinates 39°19′22″N110°41′22″W / 39.32282°N 110.68951°W / 39.32282; -110.68951
Governing body Bureau of Land Management
www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/res/Education_in_BLM/Learning_Landscapes/For_Travelers/go/geology/cleveland-lloyd.html
Designated1965
Skull cast of Allosaurus fragilis, assembled from moulded bones found at Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. The skull is now at the Palaeontological Museum, Munich (Germany). Allosaurus fragilis skull, Palaontologisches Museum Munchen.JPG
Skull cast of Allosaurus fragilis, assembled from moulded bones found at Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. The skull is now at the Palaeontological Museum, Munich (Germany).
Jurassic National Monument landscape, 2019 Jurassic National Monument 2019.jpg
Jurassic National Monument landscape, 2019
Exhibit buildings and visitor center at Jurassic National Monument. View is towards the west. Buildings Jurassic National Monument.jpg
Exhibit buildings and visitor center at Jurassic National Monument. View is towards the west.

Jurassic National Monument, at the site of the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, well known for containing the densest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur fossils ever found, is a paleontological site located near Cleveland, Utah, in the San Rafael Swell, a part of the geological layers known as the Morrison Formation.

Contents

Well over 15,000 bones have been excavated from this Jurassic excavation site and there are many thousands more awaiting excavation and study. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in October 1965. [1] The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 12, 2019, named it as a national monument. [2]

All of these bones, belonging to different species, are found disarticulated and indistinctly mixed together. It has been hypothesised that this strong concentration of mixed fossilised bones is due to a "predator trap", but any kind of definitive scientific consensus has not yet been reached and debate continues to the present day.

Visiting

The visitor center is administered by the Bureau of Land Management. There is a skeleton reconstruction of an adult Allosaurus (and other bones) on display in the visitor center, along with many other exhibits. A renovated and expanded quarry visitor center was dedicated on April 28, 2007. The visitor center is open seasonally with variable hours.

History

The quarry was found by sheepherders and cattlemen as they drove their animals through the area during the late 19th century. In 1927, the Department of Geology at the University of Utah, under the direction of Chairman F.F. Hintze, visited the area and collected 800 bones. In 1939-41 a field party of Princeton University, led by William Lee Stokes (1915–1994, known as the "Father of Utah geology"), came on site to extensively dig up specimens. Because of the proximity to Cleveland, Utah, and because these expeditions were financed by Malcolm Lloyd, the site was later known as the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry. [3] In three summers, the 1939-1941 Princeton expeditions collected 1,200 bones. A part of these bones was sent to Princeton and eventually the bones were sorted to mount a complete composite skeleton of Allosaurus, but World War II broke out and the skeleton was not mounted and exhibited in the University until February 1961. This Allosaurus skeleton, still nowadays on display at Guyot Hall, in the campus of New Jersey, is most likely the first Allosaurus skeletal mount obtained from the quarry. In the meantime, and because excavations had been interrupted by the war, work started again in 1960, when young paleontologist James Henry Madsen Jr. (1932-2009) was hired within the University of Utah to assist William Lee Stokes with the excavations.

As of 1960 Stokes and Madsen founded the "University of Utah Cooperative Dinosaur Project", [4] with funds of the University of Utah. This project granted casts or specimens of dinosaurs to museums and institutions from the US but also from countries all around the world, in exchange of financial and excavation assistance. [4] The project continued until 1976 when the University of Utah interrupted the funding. Madsen managed to continue excavating the quarry by means of a private company he founded the same year, Dinolab, intended to sell casts of dinosaur skeletons to museums, institutions and private buyers. Before that, in 1974, a new dinosaur had been described by Madsen, then assistant research professor of geology and geophysics in the University of Utah. He named it Stokesosaurus clevelandi , honouring his mentor, professor William Lee Stokes. In 1976, another new dinosaur was described from fossils found in the quarry by Madsen. He named it Marshosaurus bicentesimus , honouring American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899). In 1987, Brigham Young University paleontologists excavated a fossil dinosaur egg, at the time the oldest such egg ever found.

Over the years, excavations led by the University of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah have resulted in the collection of more than 12,000 fossil bones from the quarry. While most of the original fossils are currently housed at the Natural History Museum of Utah, many skeletons reproduced from Cleveland-Lloyd dinosaur remains are now on exhibit in more than 65 museums worldwide. Original specimens from the quarry remain on public exhibit in Utah at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, the Utah State University Eastern Prehistoric Museum [5] in Price and the Earth Science Museum at Brigham Young University in Provo.

The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) opened a visitor center at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in 1968. This was the first-ever BLM visitor center. On April 28, 2007 a new, larger facility was dedicated that has updated exhibits. The new visitor center generates its own electricity from rooftop solar panels.

Early in 2019, the quarry reached the official status of "national monument" under the name of "Jurassic National Monument". [6] [7]

Geology

Map showing the thousands of dinosaur bones excavated at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry at the Jurassic National Monument. CLDQ map.jpg
Map showing the thousands of dinosaur bones excavated at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry at the Jurassic National Monument.

The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry of east central Utah has produced one of the most prolific dinosaurs bone assemblages in the Upper Jurassic beds of North America. The quarry is part of the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation. The fossil deposit, which is interpreted to be a possible predator trap, consists of a calcareous smectitic mudstone which accumulated on the floodplain of an anastomosing river system. An anastomosing river system consists of multiple interconnected channels confined by prominent levees separated by interchannel topographic lows. The depositional environment of the quarry mudstone was an interchannel seasonal accumulation of clay nested in a topographic low between channel levees called a floodpond.

Dinosaurs became entrapped in the cohesive and adhesive mud as they drank and hunted near the floodpond. The preserved fauna consists of almost all dinosaurs with the majority being carnivorous dinosaurs including Allosaurus (material from at least 44 individuals make up almost 67% of all remains), Torvosaurus (1), Ceratosaurus (1), Stokesosaurus (2), Marshosaurus (2), and a Tanycolagreus (1). Herbivorous dinosaurs include Camarasaurus (3), Diplodocus (1), Barosaurus (1), Apatosaurus (1), Camptosaurus (5), and Stegosaurus (4). [8] Non-dinosaurian fauna include a crocodile (Goniopholis), 2 turtles (Glyptops), 4 genera of gastropoda (snails), and 4 genera of charophyte.

The atypical predator/prey ratio (3:1) represented at the quarry may be explained by pack hunting tendencies of Allosaurus . The high percentage of smaller individual allosaurs suggests that juveniles coordinated their efforts to capture and kill prey. They may have followed their prey into the floodpond and subsequently became mired themselves. The close spatial proximity of skull elements (most belonging to Allosaurus) supports this hypothesis. Larger individual theropods almost certainly became mired while attempting to scavenge the carcasses of other entrapped dinosaurs (Richmond and Morris, 1996). However, some palaeontologists suggest that the mass deaths were in fact a result of a drought, and not a predator trap. One comparison with the La Brea Tar Pits suggests that multiple, non-migratory groups of Allosaurus may have come to the area looking to find water, dying due to the harsh conditions and perhaps from diseases caused by drinking contaminated water due to rotting carcasses and feces being present. The evidence for this theory is strengthened by the fact that a large proportion of the Allosaurus specimens are juveniles, but until more evidence is recovered, this cannot yet be vindicated. [9] Debates continue to this day.

Paleofauna

Fossil taxa discovered at the Cleveland-Lloyd site include:

Plantae

Mollusca

Gastropoda

Chelonii

Dinosauria

Color key
Taxon Reclassified taxonTaxon falsely reported as presentDubious taxon or junior synonym Ichnotaxon Ootaxon Morphotaxon
Notes
Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; crossed out taxa are discredited.

Ornithischians

Ornithischians reported from the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry
GenusSpeciesNotesImages

Camptosaurus

C. dispar

Stegosaurus Stegosaurus BW.jpg
Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus

S. stenops

The largest ornithischian reported from the quarry

Sauropods

Sauropods reported from the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry
GenusSpeciesNotesImages

Apatosaurus

A. sp

Apatosaurus Apatosaurus33.jpg
Apatosaurus
Camarasaurus Camarasaurs1.jpg
Camarasaurus

Barosaurus

B. sp

Camarasaurus

C. lentus

3 skeletons were unearthed

Diplodocus

D. sp

Theropods

Theropods reported from the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry
GenusSpeciesAmountNotesImages

Allosaurus [4]

A. fragilis

44 - 60

The largest theropod reported from the quarry

Allosaurus mounted skeleton Allosaurus SDNHM.jpg
Allosaurus mounted skeleton
Tanycolagreus Tanycolagreus topwilsoni skeleton.JPG
Tanycolagreus

Ceratosaurus

C. dentisulcatus (may just represent the adult form of C. nasicornis)

1

The rarest theropod species in the quarry

Marshosaurus

M. bicentesimus

2

Stokesosaurus

S. clevelandi

2

The largest coelurosaur reported from the quarry

Tanycolagreus

T. topwilsoni

1

Remains originally referred to Stokesosaurus clevelandi.

Torvosaurus

T. tanneri

1

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Allosaurus</i> Extinct genus of carnosaurian theropod dinosaur

Allosaurus is an extinct genus of large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic period. The name "Allosaurus" means "different lizard", alluding to its unique concave vertebrae. It is derived from the Greek words ἄλλος and σαῦρος. The first fossil remains that could definitively be ascribed to this genus were described in 1877 by famed paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh. As one of the first well-known theropod dinosaurs, it has long attracted attention outside of paleontological circles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinosaur National Monument</span> National monument in Colorado and Utah, United States

Dinosaur National Monument is an American national monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. Although most of the monument area is in Moffat County, Colorado, the Dinosaur Quarry is located in Utah, north of the town of Jensen, Utah. The nearest Colorado town is Dinosaur while the nearest city is Vernal, Utah.

<i>Camarasaurus</i> Camarasaurid sauropod dinosaur genus from Late Jurassic Period

Camarasaurus was a genus of quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs and is the most common North American sauropod fossil. Its fossil remains have been found in the Morrison Formation, dating to the Late Jurassic epoch, between 155 and 145 million years ago.

<i>Ceratosaurus</i> Genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period

Ceratosaurus was a carnivorous theropod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic period. The genus was first described in 1884 by American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh based on a nearly complete skeleton discovered in Garden Park, Colorado, in rocks belonging to the Morrison Formation. The type species is Ceratosaurus nasicornis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morrison Formation</span> Rock formation in the western United States

The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone, and limestone and is light gray, greenish gray, or red. Most of the fossils occur in the green siltstone beds and lower sandstones, relics of the rivers and floodplains of the Jurassic period.

<i>Dryosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Dryosaurus is a genus of an ornithopod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic period. It was an iguanodont. Fossils have been found in the western United States and were first discovered in the late 19th century. Valdosaurus canaliculatus and Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki were both formerly considered to represent species of Dryosaurus.

<i>Antrodemus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Antrodemus is a dubious genus of theropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic, probably the Morrison Formation, of Middle Park, Colorado. It contains one species, Antrodemus valens, first described and named as a species of Poekilopleuron by Joseph Leidy in 1870.

<i>Saurophaganax</i> Allosaurid theropod dinosaur genus from Late Jurassic period

Saurophaganax is a genus of large allosaurid dinosaur from the Morrison Formation of Late Jurassic Oklahoma, United States. Some paleontologists consider it to be a junior synonym and species of Allosaurus. Saurophaganax represents a very large Morrison allosaurid characterized by horizontal laminae at the bases of the dorsal neural spines above the transverse processes, and "meat-chopper" chevrons. It was the largest terrestrial carnivore of North America during the Late Jurassic, reaching 10.5 metres (34 ft) in length and 2.7–3.8 metric tons in body mass.

<i>Stokesosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Stokesosaurus is a genus of small, carnivorous early tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaurs from the late Jurassic period of Utah, United States.

<i>Tanycolagreus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Tanycolagreus is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod from the Late Jurassic of North America.

<i>Marshosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Marshosaurus is a genus of medium-sized carnivorous theropod dinosaur, belonging to the Megalosauroidea, from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of Utah and possibly Colorado.

The Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) is a museum located in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The museum shows exhibits of natural history subjects, with an emphasis on Utah and the Intermountain West. The mission of the museum is to illuminate the natural world and the place of humans within it. A new building, named the Rio Tinto Center, opened in November 2011. The museum is part of the University of Utah and is located in the university's Research Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dry Mesa Quarry</span>

The Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry is situated in southwestern Colorado, United States, near the town of Delta. Its geology forms a part of the Morrison Formation and has famously yielded a great diversity of animal remains from the Jurassic Period, among them Ceratosaurus, Supersaurus, and Torvosaurus. The quarry is found within the Uncompahgre National Forest.

<i>Camarasaurus lentus</i> Species of sauropod

Camarasaurus lentus is an extinct species of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Jurassic period in what is now the western United States. It is one of the four valid species of the well-known genus Camarasaurus. C. lentus fossils have been found in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. It is the species of Camarasaurus found in Dinosaur National Monument and the middle layers of the Morrison Formation. Camarasaurus lentus is among the best-known sauropod species, with many specimens known. A juvenile specimen of C. lentus, CM 11338, is the most complete sauropod fossil ever discovered.

Hanksville-Burpee Quarry is the name given a paleontological excavation site approximately 150 feet (46 m) wide by 600 feet (180 m) long near Hanksville, Utah, USA, where scientists have found a large mix of remains of sauropods, trees, freshwater clams and other species dating between 145 million years ago to 150 million years ago. The mixed assortment of remains deposited in this one location provide a unique opportunity to scientists to study the paleoecology of the area in the late Jurassic period.

<i>Uteodon</i> Genus of reptiles (fossil)

Uteodon is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It is a basal iguanodontian which lived during the late Jurassic period in what is now Uintah County, Utah. It is known from the middle of the Brushy Basin Member, Morrison Formation. The genus was named by Andrew T. McDonald in 2011 and the type species is U. aphanoecetes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleontology in Utah</span> Paleontological research in Utah

Paleontology in Utah refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Utah. Utah has a rich fossil record spanning almost all of the geologic column. During the Precambrian, the area of northeastern Utah now occupied by the Uinta Mountains was a shallow sea which was home to simple microorganisms. During the early Paleozoic Utah was still largely covered in seawater. The state's Paleozoic seas would come to be home to creatures like brachiopods, fishes, and trilobites. During the Permian the state came to resemble the Sahara desert and was home to amphibians, early relatives of mammals, and reptiles. During the Triassic about half of the state was covered by a sea home to creatures like the cephalopod Meekoceras, while dinosaurs whose footprints would later fossilize roamed the forests on land. Sand dunes returned during the Early Jurassic. During the Cretaceous the state was covered by the sea for the last time. The sea gave way to a complex of lakes during the Cenozoic era. Later, these lakes dissipated and the state was home to short-faced bears, bison, musk oxen, saber teeth, and giant ground sloths. Local Native Americans devised myths to explain fossils. Formally trained scientists have been aware of local fossils since at least the late 19th century. Major local finds include the bonebeds of Dinosaur National Monument. The Jurassic dinosaur Allosaurus fragilis is the Utah state fossil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Foster (paleontologist)</span> American paleontologist

John Russell Foster is an American paleontologist. Foster has worked with dinosaur remains from the Late Jurassic of the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains, Foster is also working on Cambrian age trilobite faunas in the southwest region of the American west. He named the crocodyliform trace fossil Hatcherichnus sanjuanensis in 1997 and identified the first known occurrence of the theropod trace fossil Hispanosauropus in North America in 2015.

James "Jim" Henry Madsen Jr. was an American vertebrate paleontologist and geologist and main leader of excavations at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in the 1960s. Madsen primarily worked to describe skeletons of Allosaurus from the quarry, eventually getting the site to become a National Natural Landmark in 1965 and a national monument after his death.

References

  1. "National Natural Landmarks - National Natural Landmarks (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-30. Year designated: 1965
  2. "Text - S.47 - John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act". United States Congress. 2019-03-12. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  3. "Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry". Utah.com. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
  4. 1 2 3 Madsen, James H (1976). Allosaurus fragilis: a revised osteology. Salt Lake City: Utah Geological and Mineral Survey, Utah Dept. of Natural Resources.
  5. "USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum". Archived from the original on 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2016-09-20.
  6. Borunda, Alejandra (February 27, 2019). "10 places that will be protected by Congress's new public lands bill". National Geographic. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
  7. Gammon, Kathleen (March 12, 2019). "Trump approves five national monuments – from black history to dinosaur bones". The Guardian. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
  8. Farlow, James O.; Coroian, Dan; Currie, Phillip J.; Foster, John R.; Mallon, Jordan C.; Therrien, Fraçois (July 11, 2022). "Dragons" on the landscape: Modeling the abundance of large carnivorous dinosaurs of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation (USA) and the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation (Canada)
  9. https://commons.lib.niu.edu/bitstream/handle/10843/21602/Reddick_niu_0162M_13209.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Archived 2021-01-06 at the Wayback Machine [ bare URL PDF ]

Other sources