Robert Joseph Gay is an American Paleontologist known for his work in the Chinle and

Kayenta Kayenta ( nv, ) is a U.S. town which is part of the Navajo Nation and is in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. Established November 13, 1986, the Kayenta Township is the only "township" existing under the laws of the Navajo Nation, making it u ...

Formations in the southwest United States. He is known for the discovery of the first occurrence of ''

Crosbysaurus ''Crosbysaurus'' is a genus of extinct archosauromorph that lived in the Late Triassic of Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah. It is known from the Chinle Formation and Dockum Group rock units from the southwestern United Stat ...

'' from Utah,Gay, R. J., & Aude, I. S. (2015). The first occurrence of the enigmatic archosauriform Crosbysaurus Heckert 2004 from the Chinle Formation of southern Utah. PeerJ, 3. doi:10.7717/peerj.905 as well as his studies of cannibalism in '' Coelophysis'' and sexual dimorphism in '' Dilophosaurus''. Since 2014, Gay has taken high school students to the Chinle of Comb Ridge, Utah, and he is currently making new discoveries there. In December 2017, he and coauthors Xavier A. Jenkins of

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

and John R. Foster of the Museum of Moab formally published their study on the oldest known dinosaur from Utah, a neotheropod that is likely an animal similar to ''Coelophysis''. Robert Gay is currently the Education Director at the Colorado Canyons Association.

Discoveries

In the summer of 2015, Gay discovered the first occurrence of ''

'' from the Triassic of Utah. In 2017, Robert Gay and others published their discovery on the oldest known dinosaur from the State of Utah, a small '' Coelophysis''-like neotheropod from the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation.

Publications and Abstracts

Gay , R. J., Huttenlocker , A. K., Irmis , R.B., Stegner , M.A., & Uglesich , J. (2020). Paleontology of Bears Ears National Monument (Utah, USA): History of exploration, study, and designation. Geology of the Intermountain West, 7, 205-241. Jenkins, Xavier A.; Foster, John R.; Gay, Robert J. First unambiguous dinosaur specimen from the Upper Triassic Chinle formation in Utah. Geology of the Intermountain West, .l. v. 4, p. 231-242, Dec. 2017. ISSN 2380-7601. Gay RJ, Aude IS. (2015). The first occurrence of the enigmatic archosauriform Crosbysaurus Heckert 2004 from the Chinle Formation of southern Utah. Gay, Robert (2001). "New specimens of ''Dilophosaurus wetherilli'' (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of northern Arizona". ''Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists annual meeting volume Mesa, Arizona'' 1: 1. Gay, Robert (2005). "Evidence for sexual dimorphism in the Early Jurassic theropod dinosaur, ''Dilophosaurus'' and a comparison with other related forms In: Carpenter, Ken, ed. The Carnivorous Dinosaurs". ''The Carnivorous Dinosaurs''. Indiana University Press. pp. 277–283. . Gay, R.J. (2001). "An unusual adaptation in the caudal vertebrae of ''Coelophysis bauri'' (Dinosauria: Theropoda)". ''PaleoBios'' 21: 55. Lockley, Martin G.; Gierlinski, Gerard D.; Houck, Karen; Lim, Jong-Deock; Kim, Kyung Soo; Kim, Dal-Yong; Kim, Tae Hyeong; Kang, Seung-Hyeop; Hunt-Foster, ReBecca; Li, Rihui; Chesser, Christopher; Gay, Rob; Dubicka, Zofia; Cart, Ken; Wright, Kristy. 2014 “New Excavations at the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Track Site (Cedar Mountain Formation, Lower Cretaceous) of eastern Utah In Lockley and Lucas, eds., Fossil footprints of western North America. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin no. 62, pp 287–300.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay, Robert J. Living people American paleontologists University of Arizona alumni Year of birth missing (living people)