This summer the instructors for Geology 331 took about 22 students out to Wyoming to dig for dinosaur bones in the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic: 150 million years old). We excavated several large dinosaur bones and will spend much of this fall cleaning and describing the bones collected.

The Morrison Formation is a thick deposit of sandstone and mudstone. During the age of the dinosaurs, it was a vast floodplain, covering much of Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico. In our area of Wyoming, The Morrison Formation is often brightly colored gray and red banded mudstone.

First step once a dinosaur bone is located is to carefully probe the area looking for more bone.

To find dinosaur bones, one must get close to the ground and look carefully.

Hard at work to excavate the dinosaur bones.