Dinosaurs in Situ

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For many people, a memorable childhood experience is seeing the dinosaur skeletons in a natural

history museum.

Massive bones tower over us in a room with an endlessly high ceiling.

Teeth the size of daggers and eye sockets the size of baseballs leave visitors, young

and old alike, in awe.

Our imaginations run wild with mental images of a land full of gigantic lizards.

Young children don't stop to think about where the bones came from or how they happened

to be in the museum.

But as adults, we understand that the fossils were excavated from a dig site by paleontologists,

reassembled to their original configuration, and then enhanced if portions are missing.

The displays in the museum might be the original find, or it might be a replica.

With the original preserved and the part of the museum collections the general public

never gets to glimpse.

We understand that a huge amount of work went into the discovery, excavation, identification,

correct assembly, and preservation.

But what if we could see dinosaur bones in an actual dig site?

What if we could experience firsthand the thrill of seeing the jumble of fragments of

different prehistoric animals?

Can we truly imagine the enormity of having to tease it all apart, put the right bones

together to make the animals that actually existed, rather than a haphazard mix and match?

I'm Jason Epperson, and today on America's National Parks, we'll explore just that,

dinosaur fossils in situ, at one of my favorite lesser-visited national park sites in the

country, the wild and beautiful Dinosaur National Monument.

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In the northeast corner of Utah, the westernmost entrance to Dinosaur National Monument welcomes

visitors along the banks of the Green River, the road separated from the water by desert

scrub foliage.

Now, Dinosaur National Monument is a huge place, and there's so much to do beyond dinosaurs,

including whitewater rafting.

But if you want to see fossils, the Fossil Discovery Trail behind the Quarry Visitor

Center snakes through the rugged landscape.

The trail erupts in the colors and textures of the desert.

Gently rounded hills, spiky hills with stony plates that look like the trademark back of

a stegosaurus.

A hillside covered in a mix of boulders that look like the surface of the moon, and orange-colored

rocks that look like they've been sliced from a giant carrot.

Rocks so bright it seems the colors must have been painted onto them.

Don't be distracted by the scenery.

This is an eagle-eye paleontology adventure trail, but the intrepid hiker needs to focus.

Constantly scanning the rock face and the three fossil offshoots of the main trail to

discover the ultimate reward.

A far cry from standing in the rotunda of a museum face-to-face with dinosaur skeletons

too big to miss.

Here the thrill is in the chase.

The chance that if you're not fully immersed in the mission of finding dinosaur fossils

embedded in the rocks, you will simply miss them and be crushingly disappointed.

Each of the three offshoots has different types of fossils, and they're cleverly disguised

amidst their rocky tombs.

The Maori Shale offshoot features fossilized fish scales.

Don't be fooled by the name, Maori Shale is the host rock, not the fossil.

The face of the Maori Shale is a fairly flat surface, and if the light is right and you

look at the shale from this angle and that angle, you will start to notice dark gray

and golden colored circles on its surface.

These circles are the fish scales, all that's left after their bodies decomposed and the

bones washed away.

The Stump Formation is another marine fossil bed.

Here in this former ocean environment, fossils of clams, snails, ammonites, and squid lie

embedded in the textured surface of the stone.

But we are on the lookout for dinosaurs after all, and dinosaur fossils are indeed found

along this trail.

Paleontological exploration of the Morrison Formation uncovered ten different species

of dinosaur.

Most of the fossil bones were excavated and removed to scientific centers and museums,

but some remain embedded here in the stone along the trail.

Many are small fragments, but you can find and touch a leg bone, and if you look hard

enough, you'll find vertebrae as well.

But the true treasure trove is at the end of the trail, in the Quarry Exhibit Hall.

The approach is quite thrilling, past a series of time markers, taking visitors on a journey

through the past.

Four million years ago, the earliest human ancestors evolved in Africa.

Five million years ago, the Green and Yampa Rivers cut canyons.

Forty-five to sixty-five million years ago, the Rocky Mountains rise up.

Sixty-five million years ago, all dinosaurs go extinct.

It's a serious moment in the park, standing dwarfed by the landscape on the precipice

of today and yesteryear.

So many yesteryears ago that it's hard to fathom.

Dinosaurs roamed this very spot, living here, dying here, disappearing here, until time,

science and persistence unearthed them.

It can make a person feel very small, insignificant really, just a single raindrop in an ocean

of whatever came before humans, before self.

In the Exhibit Hall, from wall to wall, from floor to stories high ceiling, stretches a

wall so curious, so stunning, that it takes your breath away.

This is the in-situ treasure, the jumbled array of prehistory, the mind-boggling reality

of what looks like a massive three-dimensional sculptural mural.

But this is not a piece of artwork representing the discovery of dinosaurs.

This natural-made mural is a geological uplift of a portion of the Morrison Formation that

contains over 1,500 dinosaur bones.

Ribs and skulls and legs and vertebrae and teeth all scattered together in a glorious

scientific mess.

It's not been placed here.

The building has been built around it, in all its climate-controlled glory, I might

add.

So how did this portion of the Morrison Formation remain intact, save from the removal for further

study?

In the early 1900s, the area that is now the quarry section of Dinosaur National Monument

was an active paleontology quarry under the auspices of the Carnegie Museum, after its

discovery by field collector Earl Douglas.

In an interesting twist, Douglas at first thought he had discovered a most well-preserved

but single dinosaur, a brontosaurus as it was known at the time, at a divide between

two sandstone beds, he saw the protuberance of several beautifully preserved tailbones

poking out from the weathered stone.

It was, he said, by far the best-looking dinosaur remains he had ever found.

It took months before he realized he had uncovered a vast bone bed, which turned out to be one

of the most ecologically complete collections of late Jurassic dinosaurs in the world.

Douglas and his crew discovered 11 different species of dinosaur, just in the Carnegie

quarry portion of the park.

Other species of dinosaur have been discovered elsewhere in the park as well, but the Carnegie

quarry was the biggest operation, and the one that yielded the fossil wall in the quarry

exhibit hall.

The Carnegie crew excavated and removed over 350 tons of fossils from the Carnegie quarry,

comprising over 300 dinosaur specimens.

The ones that could form complete or nearly complete skeletons became what is known as

mountable skeletons, display exhibits at famous museums where many of us first became acquainted

firsthand with dinosaurs, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, of course, as

well as the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the Smithsonian in Washington.

By the mid-1920s, the bulk of the Carnegie excavation was complete, and the uplift now

comprising the fossil wall was left intact, a veritable refuse heap of dinosaur scraps.

George Smith, director of the U.S. Geological Survey at the time, is credited with preserving

the in-situ bone bed for viewing by the public at the site where it was found.

Earl Douglas planted the seeds for this idea from the earliest days, when the enormity

of his discovery dawned on him.

He envisioned an in-situ display at the Carnegie Museum.

He wrote, quote,

Say if this nest of dinosaurs could be mounted in relief, in a great block in the position

in which they were found, it would be the greatest group on earth.

Dinosaur National Monument covers over 200,000 acres of land in Colorado and Utah.

This is not a desert wasteland.

Wildlife is abundant, with a variety of amphibians, birds, reptiles, fish, and mammals,

including bighorn sheep, bobcats, and mountain lions, frogs, toads, salamanders,

peregrine falcons, and prairie dogs.

But of course, the animals of greatest interest can only be found in their fossils, the dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs found on the grounds of what is now Dinosaur National Monument include some

famous types, Apatosaurus, which for many years had been incorrectly identified as Brontosaurus,

the very long-necked and tailed Diplodocus, and the uniquely platent Stegosaurus.

Aside from dinosaur fossils, the park offers myriad recreational opportunities,

including scenic drives, hiking, river rafting, and camping.

Much of the Utah section of the park is open year-round.

The park sits on the Colorado-Utah border.

The Colorado portion is seasonal, typically open from mid-May to October.

More than 600 species of plants can be found in the park,

and many, such as the globe mallow and various types of cacti, sport showy spring flowers.

In fact, Dinosaur National Monument is an exceptionally beautiful park.

Rippling desert hills paint the landscape an astonishing variety of colors,

browns, pinks, reds, chalky greens, and mustard yellow.

The remnants of tilted tectonic plates bear witness to the ever-changing geology of the land.

Petroglyphs adorn the rock faces in several easily accessible areas of the park.

The westernmost entrance to the park is just over three hours from Salt Lake City.

A trip to Dinosaur National Monument can be combined with Fossil Butte National Monument

and Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.

Other National Park Service sites feature fossils in situ as well,

although they do not fit together in a convenient contiguous trip.

Waco Mammoth National Monument preserves the in situ fossilized remains of six

nearly intact Colombian mammoths from the Pleistocene Epoch, as well as a camel and saber-toothed cat.

At Badlands National Park, where the terrain erodes at a rapid pace,

visitors and staff continue to discover fossil beds to this day.

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument features trace fossils of the environments of the animals

that had lived there, including corkscrew-shaped burrows of an ancient beaver-like animal,

as well as fossilized roots, insect holes, and burrows of other long-extinct rodents.

The sedimentary rock of Grand Canyon National Park exposes in situ marine fossils,

such as brachiopods and sponges, as well as terrestrial fossils, including leaves,

insect wings, scorpions, and reptiles.

Dried Tortugas National Park is a good place to see in situ fossils by snorkeling in the

shallower areas. The fossils include corals, mollusks, and invertebrates.

Speaking of coral fossils, Biscayne National Park's upper keys are composed of fossilized

coral reefs. Petrified Forest National Park showcases petrified wood, which is fossilized

trees.

Don't forget that fossils fall under the same rule as anything else you find at a national

park. Visitors cannot remove any bits of nature from the parks, nor even dig up fossils and

leave them in the same spot, or move any fossils to new areas. If you discover fossils at the

parks, leave them in place, photograph them, and note the location to report to the park

staff. This way, they continue to be preserved for all visitors.

This episode of America's National Parks was written by Lauren Eisenberg Davis, and

I'm your host, Jason Epperson. If you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a rating

and a review. If you're new here, make sure to subscribe to the podcast to get new episodes

delivered to your feed. If you're looking for photos and tips about visiting national parks,

check out our America's National Parks Facebook group. And if you're interested in RV travel,

we hope you'll also check out our RV Miles podcast and YouTube channel.

Today's show was sponsored by L.L. Bean. Follow the hashtag Be an Outsider and visit

LLBean.com to find great gear for exploring the national parks.

And by Solostove. Use promo code PARKS20 to get $20 off your next purchase of $200 or more at Solostove.com.