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Show -: I-.-:- .iji-c-- -. . - x ? it- Dr. James A. Jensen (iett) is head of the Vertebrate Paleontology Research Laboratories at Brigham Young University. Here he is assisting a YACC worker form Moab remove a fossil sample. Several YACC members are assisting in the dig at Dalton VVells. Dr. Jensen stated that he was very happy making paleontology his Me s work. He previously held several other jobs including construction worker, carpenter and longshoreman. shame for some dinosaurs to become extinct for the . second time," he said. At an undeveloped site near the Dalton Well dig, Jensen showed me a large area of fossilized sandstone sand-stone while had been damaged by someone using a steel bar to pry fragile specimens out of solid rock. The shattered specimens lay in a disorganized disor-ganized heap below the sandstone outcropping in pieces too small to be reconstructed. As if to underline Dr. Jensen's fears, on the way back to Dalton Well we passed a car with Illinois plates containing a middle-aged couple who were on their way up the trail leading to the undeveloped undevelop-ed site to "look for some agatized dinosaur bones to take home." Dr. Jensen gently steered them to an area east of Canyonlands Airport where the rock hounding possibilities were better and the chance of damaging unknown un-known fossils was slight. . Fossils removed with care can do much to enlarge the knowledge of dinosaurs that once flourished flou-rished in the Moab area. Dr. Jensen explained that the climate of 130 million years ago was very different. dif-ferent. There was abundant abun-dant water and animal life. The Dalton Well dig was formerly a creek bed and the bodies of dinosaurs, dino-saurs, birds, and early mammels were washed down from higher elevations eleva-tions where they settled into the sediments at the botton of the creek. The resulting shale and sandstone sand-stone was washed down a second time millions of years later resulting in the Dalton Well formation. This secondary movement scattered many of the fossil fragments, making the prospect of reconstruction recon-struction take on the appearance of a jigsaw puzzle. A Transition Area The Dalton Well area was deposited between two distrinct geological eras, the Jurassic and the Cretaceous. Both of these eras have left excellent fossil records. However, prior to the Dalton Well discovery, little has been known of the animals evolving in the transition period. Jensen stated that his crew has already discovered a number of fonf in . . . . . . . :T ,S. .?-- I picks In'thT11'8 students dig at a fossU with '1 i ady bePn fore&round is a specimen which has J Sremov J?61 with burlaP Plaster Prior 10 ea tor laboratory study. Also visible are the strings and sticks used to mark off sections of the dig. The scattered placement of the bone fragments makes reconstruction difficult. i : - ? sr--- v.' A- ' " "- '7.- rxA-' A' Vl vS.IT " V;; w ' 4C' r Q-rHr - k, iif I -v-r i-t-v l This apparent pile of rocks is actually a pile of valuable fossils destroyed by someone who used an iron bar to pry them out of the sandstone. Much of this type of damage has taken place in the Dalton Wells area. The fossils found in the embankment are so-called "junk bones," which are not valued by rock collectors. However, to the paleontologist, they can reveal the history of the animals that once inhabited the area long ago. : BYU Prof Studies Fossils at Dalton Wells Dig y.' j By Bill Davis ' i On a rubble-strewn ke;i bluff near Dalton Wells, 'b, north of Moab, several people were kneeling in jjj the dust, chipping at the jbj." soft green shale with ;p. icepicks, pausing occa- I j"' sionally to sweep away the fragments with narrow j0 . paintbrushes. The atten- j4. tion to detail on such a j," small scale seemed ludi- 1, crous when compared to nti' the backdrop of cliffs and ijjj sand flats stretching into the distant skyline. . The people performing ". the delicate work were 1 students in paleontology j. working under the direc- tion of Dr. James A. jl" Jensen, head of the . J Vertebrate Paleontology Research Laboratories at Brigham Young University. Univer-sity. Dr. Jensen and the students were attempting to discover a fossil link between two geologic ages; the Jurassic and the Cretaceous. Long Range Program The Dalton Well scientific scien-tific project is part of a long-range research pro-p-ara in a region of Utah nd Colorado called the ''Deadhorse Triangle Study Area." The area from Deadhorse Point to Mack, Colorado, Montrose, Colorado, "id back to Deadhorse roint. According to Dr. Jensen, the triangular rea contains the greatest concentration of unknown iyj dinosaur fossils to be ' Reeled and studied in uii North America. The Dal-f Dal-f WeU project has "Jy yielded a previ-usly previ-usly unknown type of Unosaur which Dr. Jen-n Jen-n has named after ongime Moab resident wjWtinger, "Ignanodon Uttingeri." r--- . Recently, the skull of an unknown type of dinosaur was uncovered by a Moab girl burried in the ling shale cliff face. At present, only the back portion of the skull is visible, however, work is continuing, and the skull will be removed to the BYU laboratories for further fur-ther study. Divided Into Sections To aid later study and reconstruction, the dig is divided into sections with lengths of string tied to sticks, s The fossils are sketched lying in their original positions. Before being removed, each specimen is marked with a number corresponding to its position on the graph. Shale is chipped away from the fossil to determine deter-mine its dimensions, then a block of rock containing the fossilized form is removed and covered with burlap which in turn is coated with plaster of Paris, to protect the delicate remains from damage during transportation transport-ation to the laboratory. In the lab, the remaining shale is carefully removed to reveal the entire specimen. speci-men. Lab technicians then attempt to reconstruct the bone fragments. After reconstruction, casts can be made of the fossil, so that several museums can display it at once. Dr. Jensen explained that extensive damage has been done in the Dalton Well area by amateur rock collectors looking for gem quality agatized dinosaur bones. The fossils at Dalton Well are "junk bone;" so-called because they are not formed of attractive minerals and will not take a polish. Unfortunately, in then- search for gem quality bone structions, amateur collectors have destroyed vast numbers of fossils having great scientific value, he said. "We look only at form," Dr. Jensen said, "not mineral content. Often a bone is one of a kind and may be the only one preserved on the Earth," Extinct a Second Time He pointed to a heap of . nibble consisting entirely of useless broken fossil fragments, "It would be a previously unknown dinosaurs. dino-saurs. Dr. Jensen's crew consists con-sists of four students who are training to become Vertebrate Paleontologists. Paleontolo-gists. Brooks Britt, from Washington, will do his master's and Ph. D. work on the Dalton Well locality and the surrounding area. Michael and Rodney Schutz, brothers from Delta, Colorado, and Francis Lisak from Michigan Michi-gan are working on other parts of the program. ri- ---japi"-1.''""! "-'-'" i... . i...... f V A, V t '- 3i - Al t. J -1 r ;i k yf ; - - , X "f" , 1 The crew is aided by several young people from Moab working for the Young Adults Conservation Conserva-tion Corps program, sponsored spon-sored by BLM. All of the members of the crew exhibited the same enthusiasm enth-usiasm for their work that motivates Jensen. This is understandable, for they, are slowly revealing a section of the Earth's history that has been buried for over 100 million years. Specimen 155 is the pelvis of a "bird hip" dinosaur, according to Dr. Jensen. All of the fossils are marked with numbers to aid in reconstruction later. The final removal of the surrounding rock takes place in the laboratory. Another section of bone can be seen below and slightly to the left of specimen 155. The crumbly nature of the Morrison formation shale can be seen in this picture. "ft would be a shame for some dinosaurs to become extinct for the second time." p7- 7 I 3 f r r$ i-i wmwm wmmmmmmmmmmm pi i i hp jJ'P" n yinw n .i j .. . L I. . ' ' --V, ' - . , ": . - N . - y - ' : ' VV I. - "' i-v.-''' -of.Jt w'j I im.. ' '.- V" .. 4 .-.;. f ( r p' JL, j V A L "- . . - ; Dr. Jensen holds a fossilized vertebre from the backbone of a dinosaur. The rock where the fossils are located is soft, and great care must be taken to successfully remove specimens such as this fragile piece, estimated to be over 100 million years old. At that time, the climate of the Moab area was very different. Both water and animal life were much more abundant. The fossils were at one time deposited in the soft sediments of a creek bottom. |