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Mother's Day Quarry
The Mother's Day Quarry (MDQ) is a Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) fossil site in the Morrison Formation that is located at the base of the Pryor Mountains in Carbon County, Montana. The site was first discovered by the Museum of the Rockies in 1994 and has produced over 2,500 elements since its discovery. Apart from approximately 12 Theropoda, theropod teeth, stegosaur limb material, and two Clam shrimp, conchostracans found at the site, these elements almost exclusively belong to specimens of the Sauropoda, sauropod dinosaur ''Diplodocus'' sp. This deposit of fossils is thought to be the result of an age-segregated herd of these dinosaurs congregating at a limited water source and eventually succumbing to drought conditions. Some debate has arisen regarding the age of the individuals found at the site. Originally the diplodocid specimens from the MDQ were thought to consist solely of juveniles and sub-adults based on the small size of the fossils and the low levels of ossification e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic, Mesozoic Era and is named after the Jura Mountains, where limestone strata from the period were first identified. The start of the Jurassic was marked by the major Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, associated with the eruption of the Central Atlantic magmatic province, Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. The beginning of the Toarcian Stage started around 183 million years ago and is marked by an extinction event associated with widespread Anoxic event, oceanic anoxia, ocean acidification, and elevated temperatures likely caused by the eruption of the Karoo-Ferrar, Karoo-Ferrar large igneous provinces. The end of the Jurassic, however, has no clear boundary with the Cretaceous and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kimmeridgian
In the geologic timescale, the Kimmeridgian is an age in the Late Jurassic Epoch and a stage in the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 157.3 ± 1.0 Ma and 152.1 ± 0.9 Ma (million years ago). The Kimmeridgian follows the Oxfordian and precedes the Tithonian. Stratigraphic definition The Kimmeridgian Stage takes its name from the village of Kimmeridge on the Dorset coast, England. The name was introduced into the literature by French geologist Alcide d'Orbigny in 1842. The Kimmeridge Clay Formation takes its name from the same type location (although this formation extends from the Kimmeridgian stage of the Upper Jurassic into the Lower Cretaceous). It is the source for about 95% of the petroleum in the North Sea. Historically, the term Kimmeridgian has been used in two different ways. The base of the interval is the same but the top was defined by British stratigraphers as the base of the Portlandian (''sensu anglico'') whereas in France the top was defined as t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic, Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone, and limestone and is light gray, greenish gray, or red. Most of the fossils occur in the green siltstone beds and lower sandstones, relics of the rivers and floodplains of the Jurassic period. It is centered in Wyoming and Colorado, with outcrops in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho. Equivalent rocks under different names are found in Canada. It covers an area of 1.5 million square kilometers (600,000 square miles), although only a tiny fraction is exposed and accessible to geologists and Paleontology, paleontologists. Over 75% is still buried under the prairie to the east, and much of its western paleogeographic extent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pryor Mountains
The Pryor Mountains are a mountain range in Carbon and Big Horn counties of Montana, and Big Horn County, Wyoming. They are located on the Crow Indian Reservation and the Custer National Forest, and portions of them are on private land. They lie south of Billings, Montana, and north of Lovell, Wyoming. The mountains are named for Sergeant Nathaniel Hale Pryor, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition who vainly pursued horses stolen from the expedition in the area. The Crow Nation, a Native American tribe which lived nearby, called the mountains Baahpuuo Isawaxaawuua ("Hitting Rock Mountains") because of the abundance of flint there (which was chipped into arrowheads). According to Crow Nation folklore, Little People (a race of high dwarf-like people with spiritual powers) lived in these mountains. Geology The Pryor Mountains are a region of Montana and Wyoming.Cruise and Griffiths, p. 185. The Pryor Mountains consists of Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carbon County, Montana
Carbon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,473. Its county seat is Red Lodge. Carbon County is part of the Billings, MT Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Carbon County was named for the rich coal deposits found in the area. It was organized on March 4, 1895, from portions of Park and Yellowstone counties. Land from Park and Yellowstone counties was used to form Carbon County on March 4, 1895. More than sixty federally designated historic sites are located in the county, including Petroglyph Canyon, one of the state's most important rock art sites. The first commercial oil well in the state was established in Elk Basin fields in 1915. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.6%) is water. Granite Peak, the state's highest mountain, is found in Carbon County's Beartooth Mountains. The Beartooth Highway, one of the "most specta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theropoda
Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally carnivorous, although a number of theropod groups evolved to become herbivores and omnivores. Theropods first appeared during the Carnian age of the late Triassic Period (geology), period 231.4 million years ago (Year#SI prefix multipliers, Ma) and included all the large terrestrial carnivores from the Early Jurassic until at least the close of the Cretaceous, about 66 Ma. In the Jurassic, birds evolved from small specialized coelurosaurian theropods, and are today represented by about 10,500 living species. Biology Diet and teeth Theropods exhibit a wide range of diets, from insectivores to herbivores and carnivores. Strict carnivory has always been considered the ancestral diet for theropods as a group, and a wider variety of di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clam Shrimp
Clam shrimp are a group of bivalved branchiopod crustaceans that resemble the unrelated bivalved molluscs. They are extant and also known from the fossil record, from at least the Devonian period and perhaps before. They were originally classified in the former order Conchostraca, which later proved to be paraphyletic and was subsumed into the superorder Diplostraca. Clam shrimp now make up three of the seven orders in Diplostraca, Cyclestherida, Laevicaudata, and Spinicaudata, in addition to the fossil family Leaiidae. Characteristics Both valves of the shell are held together by a strong closing muscle. The animals react to danger by contracting the muscle, so that the valves close tightly and the crustacean, as if dead, lies motionlessly at the bottom of the pool. In most species the head is dorsoventrally compressed. The sessile compound eyes are close together and located on the forehead; in the genus ''Cyclestheria'' they are truly fused. In front of them is a simple n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sauropoda
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their body), and four thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land. Well-known genera include ''Brachiosaurus'', ''Diplodocus'', ''Apatosaurus'' and ''Brontosaurus''. The oldest known unequivocal sauropod dinosaurs are known from the Early Jurassic. ''Isanosaurus'' and ''Antetonitrus'' were originally described as Triassic sauropods, but their age, and in the case of ''Antetonitrus'' also its sauropod status, were subsequently questioned. Sauropod-like sauropodomorph tracks from the Fleming Fjord Formation (Greenland) might, however, indicate the occurrence of the group in the Late Triassic. By the Late Jurassic (150 million yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diplodocus
''Diplodocus'' (, , or ) was a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs, whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a neo-Latin term derived from Greek διπλός (''diplos'') "double" and δοκός (''dokos'') "beam", in reference to the double-beamed chevron bones located in the underside of the tail, which were then considered unique. The genus of dinosaurs lived in what is now mid-western North America, at the end of the Jurassic period. It is one of the more common dinosaur fossils found in the middle to upper Morrison Formation, between about 154 and 152 million years ago, during the late Kimmeridgian Age. The Morrison Formation records an environment and time dominated by gigantic sauropod dinosaurs, such as ''Apatosaurus'', ''Barosaurus'', ''Brachiosaurus'', ''Brontosaurus'', and '' Camarasaurus''. Its great size may have been a deterrent to the predators ''Allosaurus'' and ''Cerato ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Museum Of The Rockies
Museum of the Rockies is a museum in Bozeman, Montana. Originally affiliated with Montana State University in Bozeman, and now also, the Smithsonian Institution, the museum is largely known for its paleontological collections. The Museum houses the largest collection of dinosaur remains in the United States, possessing the largest ''Tyrannosaurus'' skull ever discovered, as well as the thigh bone of a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' that contains soft-tissue remains. The museum is part of the Montana Dinosaur Trail and is Montana's official repository for paleontological specimens. The museum's collections focus on the physical and cultural history of the Rocky Mountains and the people and animals who have lived there, and date back more than 500 million years. Permanent exhibits include: "Enduring Peoples", which chronicles the life of Native Americans on the Northern Plains and near the Rocky Mountains; "History of the Northern Rocky Mountain Region", whose inhabitants included Native ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cincinnati Museum Center At Union Terminal
The Cincinnati Museum Center is a museum complex operating out of the Cincinnati Union Terminal in the Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. It houses museums, theater, a library, and a symphonic pipe organ, as well as special traveling exhibitions. Museums The museum provides a home to five organizations: * Cincinnati History Museum * Museum of Natural History & Science * Robert D. Lindner Family Omnimax Theater * Cincinnati History Library and Archives * Duke Energy Children's Museum Museum of Natural History & Science The Museum of Natural History & Science includes a space called Dinosaur Hall, featuring skeletons and fossils, including skeletons in the Galeamopus, Daspletosaurus, and Torvosaurus genera. The Torvosaurus skeleton, installed in 2018, is the most complete skeleton of the genus, at 55 percent complete, and the only Torvosaurus skeleton publicly exhibited. The natural history museum also includes a reproduction of a limestone cave. The exhibit, titl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bighorn Basin Paleontological Institute
The Elevation Science Institute (ESI), formerly known as the Bighorn Basin Paleontological Institute, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to paleontology and earth science research, education, and outreach. The organization conducts paleontological field work in the Bighorn Basin of Montana and Wyoming, largely focusing on vertebrates from the Mesozoic. During the off-season, the ESI is primarily based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they work to provide free outreach and education programs in the natural sciences to the public. The ESI is the official scientific and educational partner of Field Station: Dinosaurs. The ESI also operates the Fossil Preparation Lab at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, which serves as the ESI's base of operations for fossil preparation and research. The ESI also works very closely with the Academy to develop and implement educational programming. The Cincinnati Museum Center, Museum of Natural History and Scienc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
