Dinosaurs & Fossils
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs lived only during the Mesozoic Era, which is often called the “Age of Dinosaurs.” Utah has perhaps the best Mesozoic rock record in the world. The Mesozoic Era (225 to 65 million years ago) is divided into three time periods: the Triassic (225-193 million years ago); the Jurassic (193-136 million years ago); and the Cretaceous (136-65 million years ago).
Utah’s Dinosaur Record
Poster (pdf)
Age of Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Era
Cretaceous Period
- Utah’s Early Cretaceous Fossils Provide Critical Data on the Opening of the Atlantic Ocean
from Survey Notes, September 2018 - Does Utah Preserve North America’s Oldest Cretaceous Dinosaurs Because of Ancient Salt Deposits?
from Survey Notes, January 2017 - UGS Paleontologists Collect Dinosaur Megablock
from Survey Notes, September 2015 - The Thumb-Spiked Iguanodontians – Dinosaurian Cows of the Early Cretaceous
from Survey Notes, January 2013 - UGS Scientist Honored in Naming of Utah’s Newest Dinosaur: Martharaptor greenriverensis
from Survey Notes, January 2013 - Utah’s Prehistoric Tanks: The Ankylosaurs
from Survey Notes, September 2011 - New Horned Dinosaurs from the Wahweap Formation
from Survey Notes, September 2007 - Falcarius utahensis; Killer Dinos Turned Vegetarian
Utah dinosaur bones reveal missing link in evolution of diet - Dinosaur Record from the Early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation
from Survey Notes, January 2005
Jurassic Period
- Scientific Investigations at Hanksville-Burpee Dinosaur Quarry
from Survey Notes, January 2009
Tracks and Tracksites
Tracks and Tracksites
- Are those animal tracks in the sidewalk?
from Survey Notes, May 2012 - Spectacular pterosaur track slab begins its cross-country journey (11/2013)
St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm
- The Case for Fishing Dinosaurs
from Survey Notes, September 2007 - Squatting Dinosaur Tracks
- St. George Dinosaur Tracksite
from Survey Notes, Sept. 2002 - St. George Dinosaur Tracksite (pdf)
Public Information Series #78
Flaming Gorge Reservoir
Fossils
Fossils
- Fossil environments in Utah (pdf)
Public Information Series 93 - What should you do if you find a fossil? Can you keep it? Should you report it?
from Survey Notes, September 2009 - GeoSights: Wolverine Petrified Forest, Garfield County
from Survey Notes, September 2017 - When sharks, rays & sawfish ruled Utah’s rivers
from Survey Notes, May 2014 - Utah’s oldest fossils are found in the Uinta Mountains
from Survey Notes, May 2005 - The Wolverine Petrified Forest
from Survey Notes, August 2003 - Trilobites and the Cambrian Environment of Utah
from Survey Notes, May 1996
Ice Age Wildlife
Ice Age Wildlife
Ice Age presentation (ppt)
- Utah’s Pleistocene Fossils: Keys for Assessing Climate and Environmental Change
from Survey Notes, September 2010 - Mammoth tusk discovery adds to our knowledge of life along the shores of Lake Bonneville
- Utah’s Wildlife in the Ice Age
from Survey Notes, May 1996
Collecting
Collecting
- What should you do if you find a fossil? Can you keep it? Should you report it?
- Agate, chert, jasper, and petrified wood, Wayne County
- Rock & mineral collecting sites
Collecting articles are from the discontinued “The Rockhounder” series, written for Survey Notes - Rock, Mineral, and Fossil Collecting Rules
- The fossil preparation lab at the Utah Geological Survey: Bringing Earth’s ancient past to life
from Survey Notes, May 2010 - Permit Application for Paleontological Investigations,
Excavations, and/or Collections on State Managed Lands in Utah - Utah Friends of Paleontology (outside link)
A statewide, non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to preserving Utah’s fossil resources through public education and volunteer support of sponsoring institutions.
Publications
Publications
- Exceptional Cambrian fossils from Utah—a window into the age of trilobites, by Richard A. Robison, Loren E. Babcock, and Val G. Gunther, 97 p., 2015 Miscellaneous Publication 15-1
Click to purchase
- Fossil environments in Utah, by C. McCalla, 2009 Publication Information Series 93
- St. George Dinosaur Tracksite, 2002, Public Information Series 78
- Mutituberculate mammals from the Wahweap (Campanian, Aquilan) and Kaiparowits (Campanian, Judithian) Formations within and near Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah, by Jeffrey G. Eaton, 66 p., 2002 Miscellaneous Publication 02-4
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- Paleontological survey of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Garfield and Kane Counties, Utah, by J.R. Foster, A.L. Titus, G.F. Winterfeld, M.C. Hayden, and A.H. Hamblin, 98 p., 2001 Special Studies 99
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- Ceratosaurus (Dinosauria, Theropoda), a revised osteology, by J.H. Madsen Jr. and S.P. Welles, 80 p., 2000 Miscellaneous Publication 00-2
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- Late Mississippian (Arnsbergian Stage E2 Chronozone) ammonoid paleontology and biostratigraphy of the Antler foreland basin, California, Nevada, and Utah, by A.L. Titus, 109 p., 2000 Bulletin 131
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- Late Quaternary paleoecology in the Bonneville basin, by D.B. Madsen, 190 p., 2000 Bulletin 130
Click to purchase
- Vertebrate paleontology in Utah, edited by D.D. Gillette, 553 p., 1999 Miscellaneous Publication 99-1
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- Lower Carboniferous echinoderms from northern Utah and western Wyoming, by G.D. Webster, 65 p., 1997 Bulletin 128
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- Allosaurus fragilis: a revised osteology, by J.H. Madsen, Jr., 163 p., reprint 1993 (1976) Bulletin 109
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