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37-684: The Ornithopod Species Dryosaurus altus is also present in the Bone Cabin Quarry. From the Annual Field Report of the American Museum of Natural History , 1898: On June 12th a rich strike was made in opening "Bone Cabin Quarry". This is where the larger part of the year's collection was secured. The work was arduous and additional help was needed. P. Kaisen was engaged at the end of June. The party stayed here until

74-449: A compromise that eliminated Echo Park Dam and authorized the rest of the project. The Colorado River Storage Project Act became law on April 11, 1956. It stated, "that no dam or reservoir constructed under the authorization of the Act shall be within any National Park or Monument." Places on the list of National Register of Historic Places include: The Dinosaur National Monument sits on

111-504: A main defense against carnivorous dinosaurs. A Dryosaurus hatchling found at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah confirmed that Dryosaurus followed similar patterns of craniofacial development to other vertebrates; the eyes were proportionally large while young and the muzzle proportionally short. As the animal grew, its eyes became proportionally smaller and its snout proportionally longer. The Dryosaurus holotype specimen YPM 1876

148-745: A rear half of a skeleton dug up in 1905 by William H. Utterback. From 1922 onwards in Utah , Earl Douglass discovered Dryosaurus remains at the Dinosaur National Monument . These include CM 11340: the front half of a skeleton of a very young individual; CM 3392: a skeleton with skull but lacking the tail; CM 11337: a fragmentary skeleton of a juvenile; and DNM 1016: a left ilium dug up by technician Jim Adams. Other fossils were found in Colorado . In Lily Park , Moffat County , James Leroy Kay and Albert C. Lloyd in 1955 recovered CM 21786,

185-461: A skeleton lacking skull and neck. From 'Scheetz’ Quarry 1, at Uravan , Montrose County , in 1973 Peter Malcolm Galton and James Alvin Jensen described specimen BYU ESM-171R found by Rodney Dwayne Scheetz and consisting of some vertebrae, a left lower jaw, a left forelimb and two hindlimbs. Rodney D. Scheetz and his family discovered a fossil locality around five miles from Uravan, Colorado in

222-532: A ten-dam, billion dollar Colorado River Storage Project began to arouse opposition in the early 1950s when it was announced that one of the proposed dams would be at Echo Park , in the middle of Dinosaur National Monument. The controversy assumed major proportions, dominating conservation politics for years. David Brower , executive director of the Sierra Club , and Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society led an unprecedented nationwide campaign to preserve

259-564: A unique resource for both science and recreation. The park contains over 800 paleontological sites and has fossils of dinosaurs including Allosaurus , Deinonychus , Abydosaurus , and various sauropods . The Abydosaurus consists of a nearly complete skull, the lower jaw, and first four neck vertebrae. The specimen was found at the base of the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation and

296-519: A vast area of desert land in Northwestern Colorado and Northeastern Utah. Typical of high deserts, summer temperatures can be exceedingly hot, while winter temperatures can be very cold. Snowfall is common, but the snow melts rapidly in the arid and sunny climates of these states. Rainfall is very low, and the evaporation rate classifies the area as desert, even though the rainfall exceeds 10 inches. The "Wall of Bones" located within

333-408: Is exceptionally rare for dinosaur fossils. Eggshells were also represented in the sample. Scheetz voiced his intention to continue work at the site following the publishing of the note. Gregory S. Paul in his 2010 field guide to dinosaurs (2nd edition published in 2016) suggested that the Utah material represented a separate species, which was confirmed by Carpenter and Galton (2018), who described

370-602: Is the holotype for the description. Paleontologist Earl Douglass of the Carnegie Museum discovered eight vertebra of an Apatosaurus on August 17, 1909, which became the first dinosaur skeleton discovered and excavated at the new Carnegie Quarry. The area around the quarry was declared a national monument on October 4, 1915. The International Dark-Sky Association designated Dinosaur National Monument an International Dark Sky Park in April 2019. The rock layer enclosing

407-637: The Depression under the Transient Relief Service and later under the Works Progress Administration. This work included constructing a road to the quarry, removal of overburden covering the bone-bearing strata, and building of a small, temporary museum. World War II interrupted work, but this was resumed in 1951 with the building of a small metal building over the east portion of the quarry to test whether bone

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444-508: The Dinosaur National Monument Dryosaurus as a new species, D. elderae . In 2003 remains from Portugal were tentatively referred to Dryosaurus , possibly meaning it was more widespread. Dryosaurus subsisted primarily on low growing vegetation in ancient floodplains. A quick and agile runner with strong legs, Dryosaurus used its stiff tail as a counterbalance. It probably relied on its speed as

481-610: The Dinosaur Quarry building in the park consists of a steeply tilted (67° from horizontal) rock layer which contains thousands of dinosaur fossils . The preserved section is only a portion of what was originally present when Douglass made his discovery as seen on the map above. When work ceased in 1922, a portion of the quarry was left for future development. This work began as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's Civil Works Administration, which provided employment during

518-755: The Fremont culture along the Fremont River in south-central Utah and have since traced it through much of the Green and Colorado River drainages. The Fremont did not build large permanent dwellings; instead, they lived in small bands within natural shelters, such as rock overhangs or shallow caves, or small villages. They consumed plant foods, such as pine nuts , berries, and cactus fruits, as well as wild game, including mule deer , bighorn sheep , smaller mammals, and birds. They also grew corn, beans, and squash, sometimes using irrigation techniques. The fate of

555-689: The Fremont culture is unclear. Recent theories suggest that the Fremont's lifestyle may have changed due to drought or other climate factors, dwindling natural resources, or the influence of other neighboring cultures. They left evidence of their presence in the form of petroglyphs and pictographs of human and animal figures, and abstract designs. Human figures typically have trapezoidal bodies and elaborate decorations that suggest headdresses , earrings, necklaces, or shields. The animal figures include bighorn sheep, birds, snakes, and lizards. Purely abstract or geometric designs, such as circles, spirals, and various combinations of lines, are common. Many designs in

592-762: The Red Fork of the Powder River in Wyoming and Lily Park in Colorado. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Dinosaur National Monument 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

629-570: The close of the field season on October 1st. About 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Bone Cabin Quarry, a further quarry, called Nine Mile Quarry, was opened up in June 1899, near Nine Mile Crossing of Little Medicine Bow River. An incomplete Brontosaurus skeleton was recovered. Dryosaurus altus Dryosaurus ( / ˌ d r aɪ ə ˈ s ɔːr ə s / DRY -ə- SOR -əs , meaning 'tree lizard', Greek δρῦς ( drys ) meaning 'tree, oak' and σαυρος ( sauros ) meaning 'lizard';

666-399: The dinosaur beds as Dinosaur National Monument in 1915. The monument boundaries were expanded in 1938 from the original 80 acres (0.13 sq mi; 0.32 km ) surrounding the dinosaur quarry in Utah, to 210,844 acres (329 sq mi; 853 km ) in Utah and Colorado, encompassing the river canyons of the Green and Yampa . The plans made by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on

703-577: The fossils is a sandstone and conglomerate bed of alluvial or river bed origin known as the Morrison Formation from the Jurassic Period some 150 million years old. The dinosaurs and other ancient animals were carried by the river system which eventually entombed their remains in Utah. The pile of sediments were later buried and lithified into solid rock. The layers of rock were later uplifted and tilted to their present angle by

740-469: The free-flowing rivers and scenic canyons of the Green and Yampa Rivers. They argued that if a national monument was not safe from development, how could any wildland be kept intact? On the other side of the argument were powerful members of Congress from western states, who were committed to the project in order to secure water rights, obtain cheap hydroelectric power and develop reservoirs as tourist destinations. After much debate, Congress settled on

777-492: The genus have been found, the adult size remains unknown. In 2018, the largest specimen (CM 1949) was concluded to be from another species; revising the identity of this specimen put the previous research on size and growth into question. Dryosaurus had a long neck, long, slender legs and a long, stiff tail. Their arms, however, with five fingers on each hand, were short. They had a horny beak and cheek teeth . Some scientists suggest that it had cheek-like structures to prevent

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814-478: The hard rock to reveal the excavated fossil bones in-situ. In July 2006, the Quarry Visitor Center was closed due to structural problems that since 1958 had plagued the building because it was built on unstable clay. The decision was made to build a new facility elsewhere in the monument to house the visitor center and administrative functions, making it easier to resolve the structural problems of

851-832: The herbivorous ornithischians Camptosaurus , Stegosaurus and Nanosaurus . Predators in this paleoenvironment included the theropods Saurophaganax , Torvosaurus , Ceratosaurus , Marshosaurus , Stokesosaurus , Ornitholestes and Allosaurus . Allosaurus accounted for 70 to 75% of theropod specimens and was at the top trophic level of the Morrison food web . Other animal taxa that shared this paleoenvironment included bivalves , snails , ray-finned fishes , frogs , salamanders , turtles , sphenodonts , lizards , terrestrial and aquatic crocodylomorphs , and several species of pterosaur . Early mammals were present in this region, such as docodonts , multituberculates , symmetrodonts, and triconodonts . The flora of

888-622: The loss of food while the animal processed it in the mouth. The teeth of Dryosaurus were characterized by a strong median ridge on the lateral surface. In 1876, Samuel Wendell Williston in Albany County , Wyoming discovered the remains of small euornithopods . In 1878, Professor Othniel Charles Marsh named these as a new species of Laosaurus , Laosaurus altus . The specific name altus , meaning "tall" in Latin , refers to it being larger than Laosaurus celer . In 1894, Marsh made

925-621: The monument are accessible for close viewing, along four trails in Utah, one of which is near the visitor center, and a fifth trail in Colorado. The dinosaur fossil beds ( bone beds ) were discovered in 1909 by Earl Douglass , a paleontologist working and collecting for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History . He and his crews excavated thousands of fossils and shipped them back to the museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for study and display. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed

962-509: 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 . Originally preserved in 1915 to protect its famous Dinosaur Quarry, the monument was greatly expanded in 1938 to include its wealth of natural history. The park's wild landscapes, topography, geology, paleontology, and history make it

999-468: The mountain building forces that formed the Uinta Mountains during the Laramide orogeny . The relentless forces of erosion exposed the layers at the surface to be found by paleontologists. The Fremont people lived in the area of what is now Dinosaur National Monument before the 14th century, with archaeological evidence dating from c. 200 to c. 1300. Archaeologists first studied and named

1036-769: The name reflects the forested habitat, not a vague oak-leaf shape of its cheek teeth as is sometimes assumed) is a genus of an ornithopod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic period. It was an iguanodont (formerly classified as a hypsilophodont ). 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 . Based on known specimens, they had been estimated to have reached up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) long and to have weighed up to 100 kilograms (220 lb). However, as no known adult specimens of

1073-481: The period has been revealed by fossils of green algae , fungi , mosses , horsetails , cycads , ginkgoes , and several families of conifers . Vegetation varied from river -lining forests of tree ferns , and ferns ( gallery forests ), to fern savannas with occasional trees such as the Araucaria -like conifer Brachyphyllum . Other sites that have produced Dryosaurus material include Bone Cabin Quarry,

1110-551: The quarry building while still retaining a portion of the historic Mission 66 era exhibit hall. It was announced in April 2009 that Dinosaur National Monument would receive $ 13.1 million to refurbish and reopen the gallery as part of the Obama administration's $ 750 billion stimulus plan. The Park Service successfully rebuilt the Quarry Exhibit Hall, supporting its weight on 70-foot steel micropile columns that extend to

1147-552: The spring of 1972. This site, unintentionally exposed by a bulldozer, was found to contain fossil fragments, said to be in such condition they looked like unfossilized bone. The site was noted in a 1973 paper, and Scheetz continued to dig at the site annually until publishing a short note in 1991. By then around 2500 fragments had been excavated, almost all of which specimens are thought to have belonged to Dryosaurus . At least eight individuals are represented, with ages ranging from juvenile to embryonic; finding specimens of embryonic age

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1184-452: The taxon a separate genus, Dryosaurus . The generic name is derived from the Greek δρῦς, drys , "tree, oak", referring to a presumed forest-dwelling life mode. Later it was often assumed to have been named after an oak-leaf shape of its cheek teeth, which, however, is absent. The type species remains Laosaurus altus , the combinatio nova is Dryosaurus altus . The holotype, YPM 1876,

1221-621: The top, which places it in the late Oxfordian , Kimmeridgian , and early Tithonian stages of the Late Jurassic period. In 1877 this formation became the center of the Bone Wars , a fossil-collecting rivalry between early paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope . The Morrison Formation is interpreted as a semiarid environment with distinct wet and dry seasons . The Morrison Basin where dinosaurs lived, stretched from New Mexico to Alberta and Saskatchewan, and

1258-583: Was abundant enough to warrant a larger, more permanent building. This more permanent building was erected in the mid-1950s as part of the National Park Service Mission 66 plan. The architectural design was high controversial for its ultra-modern use of glass, steel and concrete ramp that spiraled around a cylindrical office tower. The building opened at the dedication ceremony on June 1, 1958. The design had two levels and abundant natural light so that visitors could watch technicians remove

1295-646: Was discovered in Reed's YPM Quarry 5, in the Upper Brushy Basin Member, of the Morrison Formation . In the Late Jurassic Morrison formation of Western North America, Dryosaurus remains have been recovered from stratigraphic zones 2–6. This formation is a sequence of shallow marine and alluvial sediments which, according to radiometric dating , ranges between 156.3 million years old ( Ma ) at its base, to 146.8 million years old at

1332-1058: Was formed when the precursors to the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains started pushing up to the west. The deposits from their east-facing drainage basins were carried by streams and rivers and deposited in swampy lowlands, lakes, river channels and floodplains . This formation is similar in age to the Solnhofen Limestone Formation in Germany and the Tendaguru Formation in Tanzania . The Morrison Formation records an environment and time dominated by gigantic sauropod dinosaurs such as Brontosaurus , Camarasaurus , Barosaurus , Diplodocus , Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus . Dinosaurs that lived alongside Dryosaurus included

1369-548: Was found in a layer of the Upper Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation , dating from the Tithonian . It consists of a partial skeleton including a rather complete skull and lower jaws. Several other fossils from Wyoming have been referred to Dryosaurus altus . They include specimens YPM 1884: the rear half of a skeleton; AMNH 834: a partial skeleton lacking the skull from the Bone Cabin Quarry ; and CM 1949:

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