The Utah Geological Survey’s paleontology program has just complete a month of excavation at our Doelling’s Bowl dinosaur site in eastern Utah. This site is in the early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation. The previous 3 seasons were spent excavating a sauropod (long-necked) dinosaur skeleton from an animal that had become mired in mud. While excavating this skeleton we discovered a lower layer that has a concentration of bones belonging primarily to a number of iguanodontid dinosaurs (plant eaters related to duck-billed dinosaurs). It is likely that these bones belong to a new species of iguanodontid and the bones collected this summer, including all of the bones of the pelvis, will help us to determine this by comparing them to those of other species of iguanodontids from this time period. Helping us in our excavations were a number of students and volunteers from the Utah Friends of Paleontology (UFOP).

UGS paleontologists, students, and UFOP volunteers excavate at the Doelling’s Bowl dinosaur site.

Paleontology volunteer Sue Marsland of Canada instructs young paleontology enthusiasts from England on how to make a plaster jacket to protect dinosaur bones during a visit to the excavation at Doelling’s Bowl.

UFOP volunteer and budding young paleontologist Ethan Cowgill of Salt Lake City spent 2 weeks assisting UGS paleontologists at Doelling’s Bowl. Here he removes rock in order to collect a dinosaur rib and shoulder blade.

An iguanodontid scapula (shoulder blade) sits above an unidentified bone that appears to have been damaged, possibly by trampling, before burial. The paintbrush is 2 inches wide.

A 4-inch-long tooth of a meat-eating dinosaur (theropod) in place at Doelling’s Bowl. Only teeth have so far been discovered from this dinosaur that is almost certainly from a new species of large carnivorous dinosaur.