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By Scott Williams, May 31, 2010 10:27 pm

Work has been progessing at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry.  Just a reminder, the quarry is a giant late Jurassic Period (147-150 million years ago) dinosaur bonebed.  It is found within the world famous Morrison Formation.  Dinosaurs like Apatosaurus (aka Brontosaurus), Camarasaurus, Diplodocus and the theropod (meat-eater), Allosaurus are found in this formation.  The formation represents fluvial (river) deposits.  When rivers and streams flooded, this allowed dinosaur carcasses to be buried quickly.  Geology lesson aside, we spend up work once we had more help.

Morrison Formation

Now that Dr. Matt Bonnan and his students from Western Illinois University have been at the quarry more discoveries have been made everyday.  In the last three days at least 20 new bones have been discovered including Barosaurus cervical (neck) vertebra, a new scapula (shoulder blade) and what might be a partially articulated Allosaurus vertebral column.

Andy & Tammy

One particular find was made by Burpee Volunteers; Andy and Tammy Prell.  Andy and Tammy have several years of field work experience, first completing two field seasons with Dr. Thomas Carr, Carthage College in the Hell Creek Formation of southeastern Montana and then last year with Burpee.  Andy spent three days working on pedestalling one of the big scapulae and Tammy found a very large thoracic (chest) rib.  This rib was missing its distal (bottom) half, but had a huge rib head.  I would estimate that this rib if complete would be about seven feet in length.  This means that this dinosaur would have an enormous, barrel chest.  In addition to these finds ….one of the WIU Students, Megan Luczak found a very interesting bone.  I have my suspicions, but it needs to be prepped more.  Once I know more….so will you!  Stay tuned.

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By Scott Williams, May 31, 2010 10:15 pm

Tuesday; work continued in earnest at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry.  Several new bones were found in a short time before we were chased out by a late spring thunderstorm.  Fortunately we made it out of the field before our vehicle got mired in the mud.

Double Arch

With time to spare, we decided to visit one of the best attractions in Utah, Arches National Park.  The park sits at the bottom of the LaSal Moutain Range and I must admit this has become one of my favorite parks right behind Yellowstone.  Several formations are present in the park, but two are the most prominent; Navajo and Entrada.  Most of the arches form from the weathering of the Entrada sandstones. If you ever get to Moab you need to visit.  Despite the rain, we were productive and saw what Utah has to offer.