Dinosaur National Monument is currently the only National Park area set up to protect a historic dinosaur quarry. This particular quarry gives visitors an up close and personal encounter with fossils.
What are fossils?
When an animal or plant dies it is usually completely destroyed by scavengers or eventually it decays. If the animal or plant is buried before it is destroyed its remains can be preserved as fossils. Some fossil examples include bones, plants, and trace fossils. Throughout the fossilization process a bone's chemical composition recrystallizes and the bone hardens and becomes more like a rock.
How are fossils formed?
Most often, fossils are found in sedimentary rock. These rocks are made of small pieces of other rocks or sand/silt that become cemented over millions of years. If the remains of an animal (bones) are covered by sediments the bone may become fossilized. Often rock sediments settle down into the bottom of lakes, swamps and oceans. For this reason most fossils are the remains of animals who lived in or near the water.
What do fossils tell us?
Layers of rock tell us the Earth's history as they preserve past events. Fossils are used to help scientists determine the age of the layered rocks. Fossils can also tell us a story about things that happened on the earth and the approximate time period of when they happened.
About this quarry
This dinosaur quarry is part of the Morrison formation which is a specific layer of rock that was deposited as sediment during the Jurassic Period. The plant and animal remains were deposited about 150 million years ago in so many environments that scientists have been able to figure out what the area looked like back then.
There is a very interesting history about how so many fossils came to be located in this spot. We'd like your visit to the park to be a special one, so we'll let you discover its mysteries there.
To get credit for the cache please answer the questions below. When answering the questions do your best. It is more important that you learn a new concept about our earth and can apply your knowledge, rather than have a precise answer.
Questions:
1- As you enter the quarry from the top level of the observation deck you will see a long dark black horizontal fossilized object in the mountain that is not bone. What do you think it is?
2- On the mountain (and picture below) you will notice 2 large parallel bones that stand out on the wall because they are close together and look quite similar to each other. What is the length and width (in your estimation) of each of the 2 bones in feet? What part of the dinosaur are they from?
3- How many fossil bones remain in the quarry?
4- How many dinosaurs and other animals that lived during the Morrison Time Period has this quarry yielded?
5- Why do you think there are so many fossils buried at this unique quarry?
Thank you for visiting this earthcache. Please send your answers to the above questions to the cache owner. In your "found it" log feel free to write about your experience, but don't include the earthcache answers. Thanks and we hope you enjoy beautiful Dinosaur National Monument Quarry!
CONGRATULATIONS TO JLCRAW FTF!!!
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Resources:
http://www.nps.gov/dino/index.htm
http://idahoptv.org/dialogue4kids/season6/fossils/facts.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil
http://www.gridclub.com/subscribers/info/fact_gadget_2009/1001/nature/fossils_and_prehistoric_life/203.html
http://www.icr.org/article/dinosaur-national-monument-park-or-jurassic-jumble/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/fossils
A special thank you to the park rangers of Dinosaur National Monument for help in writing this earthcache and permission to place it.