211:. These animals were attracted to a remnant water hole of the dry Lake T'oo'dichi' lake bed where they died of starvation and dehydration. This mass mortality produced a considerable accumulation of disarticulated vertebrate remains. Subsequently, a short-lived flash flood traversed the dry lake beds. The quarry sandstone bed is a 2 meter thick, 121 meter wide, very poorly sorted pebble-rich sublith
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475:
Richmond, D.R. and Morris, T.H., 1999, Stratigraphy and cataclysmic deposition of the Dry Mesa
Dinosaur Quarry, Mesa County, Colorado, in Carpenter, K., Kirkland, J., and Chure, D., eds., The Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation: An Interdisciplinary Study, Modern Geology v. 22, no. 1-4,
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was originally planned to be trimmed to about 30 minutes for educational use. Indeed, to obtain a shortened educational version, the full-length documentary was reduced to a 24-minute-long mini-film which started airing on
American television channels throughout the USA as of 1976.
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Morris, T.H., Richmond, D.R., and
Grimshaw, S.C., 1996, Orientation of dinosaur bones in riverine environments: Insights into sedimentary dynamics and taphonomy, in Morales, M., ed., The Continental Jurassic: Symposium Volume, Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 60,
115:
During the four years that spanned from 1972 to 1976, rocks and fossils were stocked at the BYU football stadium until a specific building was constructed in 1976 for the BYU Earth
Science Museum, known in the present day as the
120:. Under the direction of the BYU Earth Science Museum, the quarry has been excavated for 13 field seasons. Approximately 4000 bones have been collected, making it one of the most prolific dinosaur producing accumulations in the
107:, a 1-hour-long color documentary showing Jensen's on-site finds in Dry Mesa. First released on November 13, 1973, in local "Egyptian Theater" in Delta, and subsequently aired on several USA TV channels,
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Richmond, D.R., 1994, Brigham Young
University Thesis: Stratigraphy, sedimentology and microfacies analysis of the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry, Mesa County, Colorado, 101 p.
101:(BYU) who commenced quarrying operations in 1972. In 1973, Brigham Young University cooperated with producer Steve Linton and director John Linton in order to produce
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bedform composed of gravel and sand which indicates flow velocities as high as 200 cm/s (5 miles/hour). Measured bone volumes can be equated to flow
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and bedforms. The river flow direction, based upon bedform orientations and bone elongation statistics, was to the east-northeast.
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mammal. Twenty-three genera of dinosaurs have been found in the quarry distinguishing it as the most diverse
195:. The bone accumulation, consisting of thousands of bones, was the consequence of two cataclysmic events, a
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characteristics indicate a short transport distance for the bone accumulation (Richmond and Morris, 1999).
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465:, located in the nearby state of Utah, another similar paleontological site of the Morrison Formation.
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bed that is stratigraphically situated in the lower portion of the upper Brushy Basin Member of the
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93:) was discovered at Dry Mesa by Ed and Vivian Jones of Delta, Colorado. The find was reported to
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vertebrate assemblages in the world. This fossil assemblage was deposited within a poorly sorted
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dinosaur assemblage. The quarry is especially recognized for its large sauropods, among which
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404:"Film to Premiere on BYU Curator's Great Dinosaur Discovery", Sunday, November 11, 1973,
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The Dry Mesa
Dinosaur Quarry of western Colorado yields one of the most diverse Upper
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203:. In the Dry Mesa area, a severe drought resulted in the mass mortality of
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and has famously yielded a great diversity of animal remains from the
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Museum of
Paleontology - Brigham Young University, "About the Museum"
227:. These calculated bone volume velocities are in agreement with flow
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Graph showing the relationship of dinosaur bone volume to Dry Mesa
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View from the Dry Mesa
Dinosaur Quarry overlooking Escalante Canyon
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Dry Mesa Quarry description page in the "dinosaurjim.com" website
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The
Joneses description page in the "dinosaurjim.com" website
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are the most celebrated finds (Richmond and Morris, 1999).
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shows abundant trough cross-stratification and a possible
448:description page in the "dinosaurjim.com" website
434:description page in the "dinosaurjim.com" website
372:description page in the "dinosaurjim.com" website
502:Jurassic paleontological sites of North America
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131:are represented in the quarry including
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517:Geography of Mesa County, Colorado
65:. The quarry is found within the
36:. Its geology forms a part of the
32:, United States, near the town of
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463:Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry
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109:The Great Dinosaur Discovery
104:The Great Dinosaur Discovery
28:is situated in southwestern
522:Uncompahgre National Forest
67:Uncompahgre National Forest
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313:Mesadactylus ornithosphyos
118:BYU Museum of Paleontology
512:Paleontology in Colorado
99:Brigham Young University
26:Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry
446:Ultrasauros macintoshi
320:Palaeopteryx thompsoni
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160:Ultrasauros macintoshi
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261:Allosaurus jimmadseni
179:channel flow velocity
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139:, crocodile, turtle,
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410:, Provo, Utah, p. 41
349:Uteodon aphanoecetes
335:Supersaurus vivianae
154:Supersaurus vivianae
432:Supersaurus viviani
370:Torvosaurus tanneri
342:Torvosaurus tanneri
254:Allosaurus fragilis
507:Morrison Formation
193:Morrison Formation
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122:Morrison Formation
38:Morrison Formation
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497:Jurassic Colorado
480:pp. 521–530.
476:pp. 121–143.
300:indet. (BYU 2023)
77:In 1971, a large
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292:Dryosaurus altus
231:determined from
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95:James A. Jensen
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470:Bibliography
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305:Marshosaurus
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284:Ceratosaurus
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145:prototherian
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50:Ceratosaurus
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327:Stegosaurus
298:Maniraptora
268:Apatosaurus
209:vertebrates
201:flash flood
87:Torvosaurus
62:Torvosaurus
56:Supersaurus
491:Categories
407:The Herald
356:References
276:Barosaurus
247:Paleofauna
241:taphonomic
233:grain size
229:velocities
225:velocities
207:and other
126:vertebrate
124:. Thirty
217:sandstone
205:dinosaurs
189:sandstone
137:pterosaur
133:dinosaurs
457:See also
237:Geologic
221:antidune
185:Jurassic
149:Jurassic
143:, and a
141:lungfish
79:theropod
42:Jurassic
30:Colorado
213:arenite
197:drought
177:fluvial
167:Geology
91:tanneri
82:phalanx
73:History
199:, and
129:genera
59:, and
45:Period
34:Delta
239:and
157:and
135:, a
24:The
329:sp.
307:sp.
286:sp.
278:sp.
270:sp.
97:of
493::
69:.
53:,
84:(
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