Hanksville-Burpee Quarry is the name given a paleontological excavation site approximately wide by long near

Hanksville Hanksville is a small town in Wayne County, Utah, United States, at the junction of State Routes 24 and 95. The population was 219 at the 2010 census. Situated in the Colorado Plateau's cold desert ecological region, the town is just south ...

, Utah, USA, where scientists have found a large mix of remains of sauropods, trees, freshwater clams and other species dating between 145 million years ago to 150 million years ago. The mixed assortment of remains deposited in this one location provide a unique opportunity to scientists to study the paleoecology of the area in the late Jurassic period. In June 2008, following three weeks of excavation, paleontologists from the Burpee Museum of Natural History and Western Illinois University announced major discoveries made at the site, including a probable '' Stegosaurus'', four sauropods and at least two carnivorous

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

. The researchers expressed confidence that future excavations at the site would come to rival those produced from

Dinosaur National Monument Dinosaur National Monument is an American national monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. Although most of the monument area is in ...

and the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, two major sources of giant Jurassic reptile remains. The site is located on federal land overseen by the United States

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

and is part of the

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, sandsto ...

, which is a significant source for the largest known dinosaur remains.

Paleogeographic Palaeogeography (or paleogeography) is the study of historical geography, generally physical landscapes. Palaeogeography can also include the study of human or cultural environments. When the focus is specifically on landforms, the term paleo ...

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

indicates that the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry area was situated at the bend of a large river during a time of sediment deposition. Researchers point to the large number of animal remains collected at the single location, and suggest the river bend acted as a trap for carcasses of large animals that died upriver and were carried downstream by high waters.

References

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External links

Hanksville-Burpee Dinosaur Quarry
official website Jurassic geology of Utah Jurassic paleontological sites of North America Morrison Formation Paleontology in Utah Protected areas of Wayne County, Utah Bureau of Land Management areas in Utah {{Utah-geo-stub