Paleontology in Colorado
[1] During the early Paleozoic, Colorado was covered by a warm shallow sea that would come to be home to creatures like brachiopods, conodonts, ostracoderms, sharks and trilobites.This sea withdrew from the state between the Silurian and early Devonian leaving a gap in the local rock record.The sea returned during the Triassic, while exposed areas were a richly vegetated coastal plain that was home to dinosaurs.Major finds include the Late Jurassic dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and the Cenozoic plants and mammals of the Florissant beds.At the time, Colorado was home to invertebrates like articulated brachiopods, conodonts, gastropods, ostracods, pelecypods, sponges, trilobites, and worms (known from trace fossils).[1] Seawater returned to Colorado during the ensuing Triassic period, although it left significant areas of the state uncovered.[2] These terrestrial areas included coastal floodplains vegetated by conifers and inhabited by creatures like amphibians and dinosaurs.[9] A series of five parallel trackways left by young sauropods provides important evidence for dinosaur social behavior.[19] The Coloradan flora of the ensuing Eocene epoch left behind plant fossils like ferns, palm leaves, and petrified wood.[20] Animal life of northwestern Colorado during the Eocene included the primitive horse Eohippus, early titanotheres, and uintatheres.The Ute had a myth regarding these tracks that justified the tree as a significant meeting place, although the contents of the tale are now lost.[24] Around March 1877 a man named Oramel Lucas discovered sauropod bones in a valley called Garden Park located a few miles north of Canon City.He wrote to Edward Drinker Cope and O. C. Marsh, the famous rival paleontologists of the bone wars to alert them about his discovery.By August of the same year, Cope had formally named the animal excavated by the Lucas brothers Camarasaurus supremus.[26] In 1890 paleontologist Charles D. Walcott found broken pieces of the bony plates embedded in the skin of Middle Ordovician jawless fish known as ostracoderms.[3] After the Felch brothers ended their field work, the so-called Marsh-Felch quarry lay unworked for twelve years.However, in 1900 William Utterback began fieldwork in the area under John Bell Hatcher for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.In the two ensuing years of field work Utterback found many skeletons of previously known dinosaurs, but also the new genus Haplocanthosaurus.[27] Around 1920 major fossil finds occurred in Oligocene deposits Colorado shares with South Dakota.[3] Later, in 1955, the American Museum of Natural History uncovered a stone block in south-central Colorado preserving several Eocene Eohippus skeletons.[19] In 1960 Malcolm McKenna discovered two early Paleocene turtles on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History on South Table Mountain.The following year, curator of the University of Colorado Museum at Boulder discovered even more turtles of that age at the same place.[19] In the summer of 1961 a major discovery happened south of Denver in Douglas County, at a site known as Lamb Spring.By the end of the summer, 13 gigantic cases containing a total of 341 fossil bones were shipped to the National Museum in Washington D.C.[21] The site is now managed and protected as Lamb Spring Archaeological Preserve.[30] Anderson would come to be known primarily for her book, The Pleistocene Mammals of North America and her research on Ice Age carnivores.
state of ColoradopaleontologicalColoradogeologic columnFossilsPaleozoicbrachiopodsconodontsostracodermssharkstrilobitesSilurianDevonianrock recordCarboniferousamphibiansfootprintsPermianalluvial fanssand dunestrace fossilsTriassiccoastal plaindinosaursCretaceousplesiosaursCenozoicrainforestsFlorissant bedsrhinocerosesuintatheresprairiescamelshorsesmammothsNative AmericansLate JurassicMorrison FormationJurassicStegosaurus armatusstate fossilStegosaurusstate dinosaurPrehistory of ColoradoPrecambrianequatorMiddle Ordovicianarticulated brachiopodsgastropodsostracodspelecypodsspongesjawless fishCalamitesconiferslycopodsMountain rangestetrapodsCutler GroupsedimentsichnospeciesamphibianKansasAllosaurusDiplodocusLate TriassicChinle FormationtheropoddinosaurRhynchosauroideslizardsauropodstheropodsColorado RiverPurgatoire RiverWestern Interior SeawaymosasaurPlatecarpusGraneros ShaleplesiosaurThalassomedoncephalopodsMonument CreekscalesleavesBenton Formationinvertebratesmarine reptilesbivalveNiobrara FormationbiohermsBaca CountymollusksFox Hills FormationOystersDakota Formationdeciduous treesPaleoceneturtlesGoldenEocenepetrified woodEohippustitanotheresOligoceneFlorissantsequoiainsectBeetlesPliocenevolcanic eruptionsgrasslandsPleistoceneArchidiskodonelephantsGrand JunctionOglala LakotaThunder BirdslightningbrontotheresentelodontsproboscideanCamarasaurus supremusGarden ParkCanon CityEdward Drinker Cope