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Join us for our premier Gala "Dining with Dinosaurs" Saturday, Oct 22, 2016 5:30 pm - Click here for all details and ticket purchase
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For 160 million years dinosaurs ruled the earth...
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Wyoming:
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Archaeopteryx: The Thermopolis Specimen
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Dig For A Day Program
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WINTER SEASON
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SUMMER SEASON
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From Yellowstone Nat'l Park
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From Salt Lake City, Utah
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From Denver, Colorado
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From Rapid City, South Dakota
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A brief orientation begins at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center at 8 am on the day of the dig. We will introduce you to local geology and paleontology as well as digging techniques and data collection procedures.
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Transportation to the site leaves about 8:15 a.m. A sack lunch is provided at the dig site.
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If you find a dinosaur fossil, technicians will show you how to preserve it while you are working and how to document your find.
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Equipment is checked in about 3:20 p.m. The van leaves the dig sites for the Center at 3:30 p.m. You will be back at the museum for a guided tour by 4:00.
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If you arrive the evening before your dig, stop by the museum. Weâll be glad to visit with you about the dig, and you can tour the museum and see technicians at work on bones from the dig sites.
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Adults: $150.00 per day
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Children: $100.00 per day
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Deposit: $50.00 per person
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Adults: $10.00
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Kids 4-12, seniors 60 and over, veterans: $8.00
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Kids 3 and under: free
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Hours & Admission
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Contact Us
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Directions
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Featured Display
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Museum Admission
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Group Rates (15 or more)
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School Groups
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Museum Admission
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Dig Site Tour
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Combination Museum Admission & Dig Site Tour
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Group Rates (15 or more)
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School Groups
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Dig for a Day
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Shovel Ready
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Big News
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The Wyoming Dinosaur Center
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Exhibitions
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Our Process
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Activities & Programs
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Research & Collections
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Plan Your Visit
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The specimen is the first hybodont shark to be identified from the Upper Sundance Formation of Wyoming. Hybodont shark material previously described was limited to the Lower Sundance and not associated with marine reptile remains. The hybodont specimen described here may indicate a different type of predation on the marine vertebrate and invertebrate environment of the Sundance Formation biota.
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A partial skeleton with an associated skull is mounted on display at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, USA. The short preorbital region of the skull and contact of the squamosal with the parietals, jugal and postorbital, allow for identification to the genus. However, large amounts of the skull and mounted skeleton are reconstructed so description is difficult in all but a cursory way. In recent years, the popularity of Moroccan material among collectors and the general public has increased the number of display specimens in museums across the world. As plesiosaurs remain very scarce in these rich marine vertebrate strata, any information expanding our understanding of the osteology of a known species warrants study. The new specimen of Zarafasaura provides information on postcranial elements which were previously unknown, along with additional information regarding a fairly complete skull that preserves elements that are missing in the holotype specimen.
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Among vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, sauropod skeletal remains dominate from the quarry, including one large Apatosaurus and two fully-grown Camarasaurus. The fairly complete three skeletons are disarticulated, although they are well-preserved. No other vertebrate fossils are found with exception of at least 29 shed theropod teeth, indicating possible scavenging activity. All sauropod bones are found in a carbonate mudstone layer,which also contains abundant lignitic fragments and some siliceous tree-trunks. We think burial took place in a poorly-drained floodplain near a palustrine or lacustrine system. Although mudstone, sandstone and siltstone are the three most common types of rocks in the upper Morrison Formation, the sequence and thickness of each layer varies between the BS Quarry and other dinosaur quarries on the Warm Springs Ranch. Differences are also discernable in sediments of the original bone bearing layers in the relatively small area, indicating complex fluvial and lacustrine systems, such as anastomosing river channels, may have been present in central Wyoming in the early Tithonian time.
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The osteology supports maintaining the generic distinction of Supersaurus. Phylogenetic evaluation finds a monophyletic Apatosaurinae containing [Apatosaurus + Supersaurus] + Suuwassea, and a monophyletic Diplodocinae containing [Diplodocus + Seismosaurus] + Barosaurus, although the generic distinction of Seismosaurus is not supported in the current analysis.
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The resulting three-dimensional maps indicate two distinct sauropod bone assem- blages with closely associated shed theropod teeth separated by a weakly developed paleosol. Consequently, previous hypotheses that all bone elements and theropod teeth in the quarry were chronolog- ically connected are amended. Synthesis of geological and paleonto- logical data provides evidence that a juvenile Camarasaurus was the center of feeding activity in a shallow-water, palustrine-lacustrine set- ting in the lower assemblage. The high ratio of juvenile to adult al- losaurid teeth suggests one or two adults in the company of several juveniles during a scavenging event. A high incidence of theropod teeth in the upper assemblage suggests that another feeding event may have occurred, but data loss from initial traditional excavation techniques precludes a more detailed interpretation. Although the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in the western United States yields abundant sauropod and theropod remains, few sites docu- menting theropod-prey interactions have been reported. Evidence of theropod feeding activities has been difficult to establish in seemingly homogeneous continental deposits with traditional excavation tech- niques alone. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a valuable tool that allows paleontologists to establish chronostratigraphic con- straints in complex continental assemblages, assess the degree of time averaging, and evaluate important geospatial patterns.
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The trackway is complete from beginning to end and consists of footprints, telson drag impressions, prosoma imprints and is identified as the ichnotaxon Kouphichnium isp. Preserved at the very end of the trackway is a complete specimen of Mesolimulus walchi confirming the trackway as a mortichnia (death march). Trackways and trace makers preserved together in the fossil record are rare and such specimens allow unique insights into behavior and ecology. The events that led to M. walchi preserved in this sediment are unknown; however, a most likely scenario is that the limulid was washed into the lagoonal environment during a harsh storm.
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One ichthyosaur (Ophthalmosaurus natans), two cryptocleidoid plesiosaurs (Tatenectes laramiensis, Pantosaurus striatus), and one pliosauromorph (Megalneusaurus rex) are known from the Redwater Shale member. Ichthyosaurs are much more abundant than plesiosaurs, making up almost 60% of the fauna. No actinopterygian fish have been found, although four species have been identified from the lower Sundance Formation. At least one hybodont shark and one neoselachian are known from rare isolated teeth. The main food source for the marine reptiles were belemnoids, as indicated by preserved gut contents for all four species. In comparison, the better known and slightly older Peterborough Member of the Oxford Clay Formation of England, has a much higher taxonomic and ecological diversity, especially in the plesiosaurs, marine crocodiles, and fish. The lower diversity in the Redwater Shale probably reflects a much lower primary productivity in the Sundance Sea, as well as restricted migration from the open ocean to the north.
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Recent examination of the excavation site has uncovered new fossil material including possible gastric contents. We can now verify that Megalneusaurus rex was collected from the upper Redwater Shale member of the Sundance Formation, about 10 m below the Windy Hill sandstone of the Morrison Formation. It appears that M rex frequented the shallower portions of the Sundance Sea during the last regressive phase. The discovery of the site is significant in establishing the stratigraphic context of this largest member of the Sundance marine reptile fauna.
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The new material includes six complete or partial carpals, four metacarpals, and nearly all of the phalanges. Although the new bones were damaged by weathering and gypsum crystal growth, the articulated arrangement of the bones is preserved. Important features include (1) broadly flared metacarpals that articulate proximally and distally with the adjacent metacarpals; (2) curved facets on phalanges that are concave proximally and convex distally; (3) laterally interlocking phalanges between digits I and II and between digits IV and V for the entire length of the outer digits; and (4) tightly articulated, interlocking phalanges among all digits distal to the 3th phalanx. Examination of the material collected in 1895 indicates that a similar structure occurred on the hindlimb as well. The results of this arrangement are rigid, reinforced leading and trailing edges of the flipper, as well as a stiff distal end. During swimming, the limb moved as a rigid unit, with no flexibility at any articulation distal to the head of the propodial. The stiff flipper generated thrust by pushing backward and downward against the water during power stroke; and generated lift when the limb was rotated and moved forward and upward during the recovery stroke.
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As is evident from the new specimen, the palatine of Archaeopteryx was tet- raradiate as in non-avian theropods, and not triradiate as in other avians. Also with respect to the position of the ectopterygoid, the data obtained from the new specimen lead to a revision of a previous reconstruction of the palate of Archaeopteryx. The morphology of the coracoid and that of the proximal tarsals is, for the first time, clearly visible in the new specimen. The new specimen demonstrates the presence of a hyperextendible second toe in Archaeopteryx. This feature is otherwise known only from the basal avian Rahonavis and deinonychosaurs (Dromaeosauridae and Troodontidae), and its presence in Archaeopteryx provides additional evidence for a close relationship between deinonychosaurs and avians. The new specimen also shows that the first toe of Archaeopteryx was not fully reversed but spread medially, supporting previous assumptions that Archaeopteryx was only facultatively arboreal. Finally, we comment on the taxonomic composition of the Archaeopterygidae and conclude that Archaeopteryx bavarica Wellnhofer, 1993 is likely to be a junior synonym of A. siemensii, and Wellnhoferia grandis Elzanowski, 2001 a junior synonym of A. lithographica von Meyer, 1861.
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© 2016
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Warm Springs Ranch
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The Wyoming Dinosaur Center
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Walk Thru Time
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Hall of Dinosaurs
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"The Thermopolis Specimen"
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Archaeopteryx
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"Jimbo"
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Supersaurus
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"Stan"
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T-Rex
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Triceratops
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Screenshot created on Monday 31. October 2016