James "Jim" Henry Madsen Jr. (July 28, 1932 – November 28, 2009) was an American vertebrate paleontologist and geologist and main leader of excavations at the

Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry Jurassic National Monument, at the site of the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, well known for containing the densest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur fossils ever found, is a paleontological site located near Cleveland, Utah, in the San Rafa ...

in the 1960s. Madsen primarily worked to describe skeletons of '' Allosaurus'' from the quarry, eventually getting the site to become a National Natural Landmark in 1965 and a

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

after his death.

Biography

James Henry Madsen Jr. was born to James Henry Madsen Sr. and Eva Anne Weidner on July 28, 1932, in Murray, Utah and married his wife Susan Sowles in 1956. Madsen Jr. had two children and four children, with a nephew and two nieces.

Paleontology

When Madsen graduated the University of Utah in 1959, few careers were open for geologists until the geologist and paleontologist

William Lee Stokes William Lee Stokes (March 27, 1915, Black Hawk, Carbon County, Utah - December 12, 1994) was a geologist and paleontologist who is best known for his work at Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Emery County, Utah. William Stokes lived to be 79 a ...

selected Madsen to oversee the excavation of

Upper Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

dinosaur fossils from the

in 1960.Madsen Jr, J. H. (1976). Allosaurus fragilis: a revised osteology. ''Utah Geological and Mining Survey Bulletin'', ''109'', 1-163. Madsen led excavations of the site for 5 years, recovering over 14,000 fossils, making it one of the most productive dinosaur quarries in the world. In 1974, Madsen named a new genus and species of theropod dinosaur from Cleveland-Lloyd based on 2 partial ilia, naming it '' Stokesosaurus clevelandi'' after his advisor and the

Cleveland Museum of Natural History The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located approximately five miles (8 km) east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in University Circle, a 550-acre (220 ha) concentration of educational, cultural and medical institu ...

. Of the 14,000 fossils found at Cleveland-Lloyd, 10,000 were of the large carnivorous theropod '' Allosaurus'' with elements from a young juvenile to an old adult represented that were later described by Madsen in 1976. Madsen along with Samuel Paul Welles published an osteology of two '' Ceratosaurus'' species they named, ''C. magnicornis'' & ''C. dentisulcatus,'' from

Grand Junction, Colorado Grand Junction is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 65,560 at the 2020 United States Census, making Grand Junction the 17th mos ...

and Cleveland-Lloyd respectively in 2000.

Public appearances

Madsen was featured on 2 episodes of the History channel television series ''

Jurassic Fight Club ''Jurassic Fight Club'' (titled ''Dinosaur Secrets'' in Australia/the UK) is a paleontology-based television series on History channel which premiered in the US in July 2008. ''Jurassic Fight Club'' was hosted by George Blasing, a self-taught pa ...

'' in 2008, where he spoke about '' Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus,'' and other Upper Jurassic American dinosaurs featured in the show.

Legacy

In 2019, Madsen's student Daniel Chure and Mark Loewen described a new species of '' Allosaurus'', which they named ''Allosaurus jimmadseni'' after Madsen's work on ''Allosaurus'' from Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry.

References

1932 births 2009 deaths {{Improve categories, date=June 2022 American paleontologists Scientists from Utah Paleontologists University of Utah alumni