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The Upper #Triassic deposits around Ghost Ranch ( @GhostRanchorg) in New Mexico have been the source of important paleontological discoveries for over 100 years...the fossils coming from the fiery rocks of the Chinle Formation
In the late 1880s Edward Drinker Cope collected in the area and would go on to name Coelophysis, based on some pretty incomplete fossils
In the 1930s, the famous paleontologist Charles Camp from the University of California, Berkeley work a newly discovered locality at Ghost Ranch - the Canjilon Quarry
It wasn't until 1947 that Edwin Colbert and crews from @AMNH unearthed a massive bonebed composed of 100s of Coelophysis skeletons. This would became know as the Coelophysis Quarry.
One of the two more complete skeletons would go on to be the neotype for Coelophysis, while numerous blocks remained unprepared for decades.
The Carnegie Museum returned in the 1980s and collected ridiculously large blocks from the bonebed. Like genuinely insanely large blocks. I would have loved to be part of that field logistics conversation...
The scene:
Someone is casually smoking and drinking coffee.
Out of nowhere, they blurt out:
"What if we just plaster the hillside"...*silence*...
"I mean, like the whole hillside"
photo credit: Greg McDonald
Someone is casually smoking and drinking coffee.
Out of nowhere, they blurt out:
"What if we just plaster the hillside"...*silence*...
"I mean, like the whole hillside"
photo credit: Greg McDonald
Later (1998) a third quarry was discovered - the Synder Quarry
Then in 2002 a fourth quarry was found, lower down in the Chinle section, this quarry was named the Hayden Quarry.
Then in 2002 a fourth quarry was found, lower down in the Chinle section, this quarry was named the Hayden Quarry.
In 2006 with funds from @natgeo and with colleagues Randy Irmis, Sterling Nesbitt, Nate Smith we starting excavating the Hayden Quarry.
The following year we published a paper in Science documenting the dinosauromorph assemblage and its impact on the rise of dinosaurs
The following year we published a paper in Science documenting the dinosauromorph assemblage and its impact on the rise of dinosaurs
*side note, we definitely collected smaller blocks
Among its diverse tetrapod assemblage, The Hayden Quarry contained several dinosaur taxa as well as a basal dinosaur similar to Silesaurus and a basal dinosauromorph similar to the enigmatic Lagerpeton from South America
we named this new taxon Dromomeron romeri
Two years later, our group along with Bill Parker and Tim Rowe had identified a second Dromomeron species (D. gregorii), which formed a clade with Lagerpeton - Lagerpetidae
That same year we reported in Science the discovery of the early theropod dinosaur Tawa hallae - and discussed the biogeographic significance of the multiple theropod taxa present at the Hayden Quarry.
credit: Jorge Gonzalez
credit: Jorge Gonzalez
Sara Burch, as part of her dissertation work @stonybrooku #SBUanatomy on theropod forelimb reduction, created a detailed myological reconstruction of the forelimb of Tawa
@SUNYGeneseo
@SUNYGeneseo
Adam Pritchard ( @PTPritchard @PastTimePaleo) worked on Hayden Quarry reptiles for part of his @stonybrooku dissertation.
He described the Tanystropheid and small archosauromorpha material...
He described the Tanystropheid and small archosauromorpha material...
as well as using the articulated and 3D preserved forelimb material from Hayden Quarry of Drepanosaurus to better understand the homologies and extreme modifications of the drepanosaur forelimb @PTPritchard
With our collaborators Jessica Whiteside and Sofie Lindström, our team generated the 1st multi proxy study of climate and fauna change for an early Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystem containing extensive vertebrate fossils including early dinosaurs. https://www.pnas.org/content/112/26/7909
Sofie Lindström was able to build a densely sampled palynological record that further provided insight into the biostratigraphy and ecosystem changes during the Late Triassic of northwestern Pangaea. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0034666715002201?via%3Dihub
Over the years, we've had numerous students (couldn't even begin to list them) at all points in the education participate in excavations at the Hayden Quarry. Some outstanding work has resulted from this participation:
Emily Lessner @AnatomyMizzou , while an undergrad @vtgeosciences with @VTechmeetsPaleo, lead the description of a new rauisuchid - Vivaron haydeni.
Chris Griffin (then @vtgeosciences grad student) & Lauren Bano ( @vtgeosciences undergrad) lead work using the exceptional Dromomeron growth series we collected to assess the relationship b/w onset of diagnostic gross morphology & histological age signal https://peerj.com/articles/6331/
Just this year, Alex Bradley ( @vtgeosciences now at @UIowaEES ) lead work by our group utilizing the preserved sternal elements in Tawa to re-assess the patterns of sternal evolution in avemetatarsalians
@SUNYGeneseo @stonybrooku @NHMU @NHMLA
https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2019.1700992
@SUNYGeneseo @stonybrooku @NHMU @NHMLA
https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2019.1700992
there are too many important finds to highlight them all, but additional highlights include:
Michelle Stockers and Sterling Nesbitt's assessment of the vertebrates of the Canjilon quarry
@VTechmeetsPaleo https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1671/0272-4634-28.4.1063
@VTechmeetsPaleo https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1671/0272-4634-28.4.1063
Adam Pritchard and Sterling's description of the bird-like skull of the new drepanosaur Avicranium renestoi
@PTPritchard @VTechmeetsPaleo @stonybrooku #SBUanatomy
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.170499
@PTPritchard @VTechmeetsPaleo @stonybrooku #SBUanatomy
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.170499
or Sterling and Michelle's description of the bonkers archosauriform Vancleavea
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/157/4/814/2732011
drawing by http://seanmurthaart.com
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/157/4/814/2732011
drawing by http://seanmurthaart.com
