The Carol/RJ Dinosaur Quarry is located in the Early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation on the north-western edge of the San Rafael Swell anticline just east of the City of Castle Dale, Utah. The composition and structure of the dinosaur communities during the Early Cretaceous Period is not well known do to the lack of fossil material found. The Early Cretaceous Period separates the well documented dinosaur faunas of the Late Jurassic and Late Cretaceous Periods. The lack of fossil material from the Early Cretaceous Period creates a 70-million year gap in the phylogenetic relationships between members of the two faunas. Fossilized material from the Carol/RJ Dinosaur Quarry and other sites in the Cedar Mountain Formation are starting to shed light on this 70-million year gap.
Partial skeletons of three different dinosaurs have been recovered from the Carol/RJ Dinosaur Quarry: 1) The skull and other bones of a primitive hadrosaur(a duckbill); 2) The skull and a partially articulated skeleton of a nodosaur (an armored dinosaur); and 3) The partial skeleton of another unidentified dinosaur. The primitive hadrosaur is the oldest hadrosaur found and the first one found in Utah.
The recent excavations at the Quarry were used to develop and use, for the first time, a radiological survey insturment (patent pending). The use of a radiological survey to accurately locate the buried fossilized bone, increased the efficiency of the excavation team.
FAUNAL GAP
The erosion of the east escarpment of the Wasatch Plateau in conjunction with the Larmide uplift, which produced the San Rafael Swell 75 to 50 million years ago, have produced in central-eastern Utah a staircase of stratigraphic rock units that spans the geological time interval from the Late Triassic Period to the present. This rock record is well defined by geologists. It is most significant that this rock record contains an abundance of vertebrate, invertebrate, plant and trace fossils from the emergence of the dinosaurs in the late Triassic Period to their extinction at the end of Cretaceous Period. This abundance of fossils has provided the evidence for paleontologists to define in great detail the terrestrial and marine ecosystems for the Late Jurassic and the Late Cretaceous Periods. The interest in the Late Jurassic Period was spurred by the large numbers of dinosaur skeletons found in the Morrison Formation. Excavations at Dinosaur National Monument at the turn of the century and from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in the 1930's and 1960's produced large numbers of Late Jurassic dinosaurs. The demand for Uranium in the 1950's brought intense prospecting in the San Rafael Swell where economically valuable uranium deposits were found in the Morrison Formation. As a result, the Morrison Formation became one of the most studied formations in the world. The important coal deposits in the Late Cretaceous sediments were also discovered and well documented.
Our understanding of the ecosystems that existed from the Late Triassic to the end of Cretaceous Period is hampered by some gaps in the fossil record. The first gap is in the Late Triassic Period to the Middle Jurassic Period. This faunal gap seems to be from the lack of environments that were conducive to the preservation of organic material during the time of disposition. It also might be attributed to lack of paleontological-prospecting in strata that contain sediments that are conducive to fossil preservation, such as the Chinle Formation. The second fossil gap, as noted by Frank Decourten in 1991, is the end of the Jurassic through the Early Cretaceous Period. This is a very important time period, since 75% of the vertebrate species became extinct at the end of the Jurassic Period, this included most of the large Sauropods. The dinosaurs like the hadrosaurs and nodosaurs that flourished during the Late Cretaceous had their evolutionary beginning in the Early Cretaceous. The Carol/RJ Quarry is a window on this evolutionary beginning and is shedding some light on this second faunal gap.
CEDAR MOUNTAIN FORMATION
With the advent of the Sevier phase of the Cordilleran orogeny, a Mesocordillian high formed to the west and the Colorado Plateau region became an alluvial plain with a very low gradient slopping to the east. The streams flowing from the Mesocordillian highlands onto this broad alluvial plain, deposited most of their sediment load to formed the Cedar Mountain Formation. The Cedar Mountain Formation is mostly lacustrine/fluvial complexes deposited by lakes and the many streams flowing on this relatively low-gradient plain. The Cedar Mountain Formation should contain forty-two million years of rock record which would span all of the Early Cretaceous time period. However, there are unconformities on the top and bottom layers of the Cedar Mountain Formation. At these points of unconformity, most of the rock record has been lost to erosion.
THE CAROL/RJ DINOSAUR QUARRY
The Carol/RJ Dinosaur Quarry was discovered by Carole Jones in 1992. Ramal and Carole Jones had started a search for dinosaur fossils in the Cedar Mountain Formation beginning in 1989. After Frank Decourten, who at that time was with the University of Utah's Museum of Natural History, pointed out that the large number of fossilized bones found at the University of Utah's Long Walk Quarry showed that the Cedar Mountain Formation does contain vertebrate fossils and that he believed the gap in the fossil record is due more to a lack of paleontological-prospecting in the Cedar Mountain Formation than a lack of fossil preservation.
In July of 1993, Don Burge Director of the College of Eastern Utah's Prehistoric Museum in Price, accompanied Ramal to the site. Don felt the site warranted further exploration. Ramal, a Radiation Analyst at the University of Utah, utilizing a radiation scintillation counter determined that the bones were radioactive and felt that the site could be mapped using radiation survey instruments. It was agreed that the site had the potential for developing a new technique for mapping bone sites using radiation survey instruments.
In August of 1993 Carole and Ramal Jones using a modified radiation survey instrument conducted a radiation survey of a 100 foot by 132 foot section of the site. The section surveyed was laid out in 4 foot by 4 foot grids. A reading was taken for each grid for a total of 850 readings. Data from the site survey was put on a computer spread sheet. Background was determined to be 2 to 3 uR/hour. When the background values were eliminated from the spread sheet, the higher readings corresponded to areas where bone fragments were eroding out of the ground. There were also above background-level readings in areas where there were no fossilized bone fragments on the surface. There appeared to be three large concentrations of bones at three different locations on the site.
The first excavation at the Carol/RJ Quarry was conducted in September of 1993, by Don Burge (center of photo) with his field team from the College of Eastern Utah (CEU) and 16 people from the Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona. The field team arrived on site Saturday afternoon and the same radiological survey instrument was used to pin point above background readings shown on the computer spread sheet. The excavation team began digging and immediately started uncovering bone. The first bone uncovered was a fibula which was jacketed. The next bones that were uncovered were a mandible, maxilla, the brain cavity and a vertebrae, a jugal, pubis, and two more vertebrae. The excavation continued through Sunday and Monday morning. All bones were jacketed for transportation to the CEU bone lab in Price.
During the winter of 1993 and 1994 Ramal Jones built a more sensitive radiation survey instrument. In 1994, a second radiological survey of the same area was conducted by Ramal Jones, David and Sherry Hartline, and Lewis Pierce. The data was put on a computer spread sheet for analysis. After the background data was removed, there were still elevated readings. This survey was used to guide the 1994 excavation work. We found bones which were deeper than the 1993 bones. The reason the deeper bones were not discovered in 1993, was that as bones were found they were jacketed and left in place until we were ready to terminate the excavation. The radiation being emitted by these uncovered bones increased the background which over-shadowed the radiation coming from deeper bones thus preventing their detection.
The 1994 excavations were conducted under the supervision of John Bird from CEU. The excavations were carried out by volunteers from Utah Friends of Paleontology, Ogden Dinosaur Park and the people from the Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona.
Excavations were started on a small knoll located on the southeast corner of the site. Bone fragments were eroding out of the knoll which led to the uncovering of a sacral vertebrae and another unidentified bone. Excavation also continued in the area where parts of the hadrosaur skull were removed in 1993. Excavations were started by David Hartline and Lewis Pierce in the southwest corner of the survey grid where the data showed a high reading. As the bones were uncovered and before they were jacketed, they were drawn in on the quarry map. The Quarry Map showed an overview of the area from which the hadrosaur was remove and the area where the people were working in the southwest corner where the high level readings were found. From this area seven jackets of bone were removed. These bones were later identified as a nodosaur.
Desert News paper reporter Joseph Bauman was on site to cover the excavation for the Desert News Paper.
The bones found in the Carol/RJ Quarry were very fragmented and if you were to try and remove it without stabilizing it with bonding agents, the bone would just crumple into numerous fragments which are impossible to put back together. The technique to keep the bone together is to uncover one edge of the bone then apply a bonding agent to the exposed bone. After stabilizing the bone, we dug a trench around the exposed bone to a depth in which the bone was sitting in a pestle of soil. Next we covered the exposed edge of the bone and the top of the pestle with damp toilet paper and then wet newspaper. We cut burlap into long 3 to 6 inch wide strips to a length which would reach from the bottom of the trench over the top of the pestle to the bottom of the trench on the other side. We then mixed plaster-of-paris with water and soaked the burlap strips. We quickly placed the burlap strips over the pestle to form a jacket around the pestle. Once the plaster-of-Paris hardened, the jacket with pestle in it was turned over and the bone was safely encased in a jacket for transporting back to the bone laboratory.
The bones excavated during the 1994 excavation, were an ilium, vertebras, and ribs. The ilium was later identified as possibly from a nodosaur. Also found were two pieces of nodosaur armor. Pictures of this material can be seen later in the web site under nodosaur.
The third excavation was conducted in 1995 and extended over a two week period. It was well organized with a large number of volunteers, many of which were experienced in excavating fossilized bone. Carl Limone from C.E.U. was the supervisor for the first three days then John Bird supervisored the rest. A radiological survey indicated an extensive bone concentration adjacent to the area where we had removed the nodosaur ilium in 1994. This bone concentration turned out to contain what appears to be an extensive part of the skeleton of a small nodosaur. The bone concentration contained ribs that are articulated to vertebrates. It was decided that to keep the ribs and vertebras in tack it was necessary to remove the entire bone concentration in one piece. The outer boundaries of the concentration were establish and a trench was dug around it. The exposed bones were carefully drawn on the quarry map using a one meter square grid divided into ten centimeter squares. It took six days to dig the trench deep enough to tunnel under the large block to put the burlap support straps under the block to hold it together. When the trenching and tunneling were completed, the block was jacketed. We added 2X4 wood planks to strengthen the jacket. Before we could turn the block over to jacket the other side, we had to jacket some single bones and remove them, one of which was a nodosaur femur. After the plaster-of-Paris hardened, the block was turned over with the help of a winch. The back side of the block was cover by a jacket. With the prized bones completely encased in the protective jacket it was ready to move to the CEU bone prep lab in Price. Once the large bone concentration was safely in its protective jacket, we all breathed easier. The bone concentration was located in the bottom of a small rain water run-off wash and, if one of the thunderstorms which had been passing around us all week had dumped on us, we could have lost that valuable bone concentration.
When the femur was first uncovered, it was relatively unfragmented. But as it began to dry out, it started to fracture and we had to quickly stabilize it with bonding agents. This is one reason why these bones should only be removed by qualified personal. Anyone else would end up with only small bone fragments and would have destroyed this valuable evidence of past life on the earth.
The first objective of the 1996 excavation was to try and find more parts of the nodosaur skull, hopefully the lower jaws. Finding the lower jaws would enable us to reconstruct the skull. Very few nodosaur skulls have been found so they are very rare. The skull provides the most information to the paleontologist so they are very highly prized. The second objective was to locate more of the hadrosaur and remove the femur found the previous year on the small knoll. The femur was from the unidentified dinosaur which we hoped was a hadrosaur. The excavations started the second week of September, 1996. The supervisor from CEU was John Bird, the volunteers were mostly from the Great Basin Chapter of the Utah Friends of Paleontology. Radiological survey instruments were used to locate more bones in the area where the nodosaur was remove, John Bird, Carole Jones and Sharon Walkington worked this area. The David and Sherry Hartline family worked in a new area, closer to the small knoll. A total of five jackets were removed from these two area. A trench was dug around the femur on the small knoll by the Bill & Jane Moore family and Ray Jones. The femur was jacketed by John Bird and Ray Jones. Carole Jones and Sharon Walkington dug a test pit in another area of the site and check it with the radiological survey instrument. On Tuesday it started to rain and the excavation had to be terminated.
One of the jackets excavated in 1996 was opened in the CEU bone lab by John Bird, Ray and Carole Jones. Each jacket had a data sheet that acted as a log for work on that jacket. On this data sheet was written the jacket number, quarry name, names of people that worked on it and their hours, drawings of the fossil material contained in the jacket and any other data pertinant to the jacket or fossil material. After the necessary data was entered on the data sheet, work could begin on carefully removing the soil. The jacket was worked from the bottom of the pestle down, this means that the bone exposed on the top of the pestle during excavation, was on the bottom. As the hard packed soil was carefully removed, the edges of the plaster-of-Paris jacket was cut away. The work continued until bone was encountered, then as the bone was exposed, it had to be stabilized with bonding agents. This process continued until all the soil had been removed from the jacket and the fossilized material was completely exposed. Ray and Carole Jones inspected a rib and piece of armor that belongs to an animal that walk this earth 100 million years ago. An artist made a drawing of the fossilized material in place so it could be entered on quarry master map and the jacket data sheet. The armor was unlike anything we have seen previously. After the drawings were completed and the fossil bone was stabilized, the fossilized material was removed from the jacket and given to the museum collections manager for numbering and entering into the museums catalog system.
This jacket contained a rib and a piece armor. The armor was unlike the armor that we had previously found. Also, next to the piece of armor were three crocodile teeth which were very interesting since we had not encountered crocodile teeth before.
Don Burge and Ray Jones view replica of a Telmatosaurus skull which is a primitive hadrosaur found in North America and Europe and is of Late Cretaceous age. This Telmatosaurus skull is, in anatomical structure, very close to that of the hadrosaur skull found at the Carol/RJ Quarry and closely resembles what the Carol/RJ skull would look like fully assembled. The Telmatosaurus hadrosaur is described as being the most primitive Hadrosaurid. If this is true, the hadrosaur from the Carol/RJ Quarry, should provide evidence about the ancestry of the Hadrosaurids, because the site is one of the oldest sites in which hadrosaur material has been found. The following photographs are of the hadrosaur found at the Carol/RJ Quarry: Skull upper jaw(maxilla), lower jaw(mandible), upper jaw and lower jaw shown together, all the skull bone that has been recovered to date, the pubis, vertebrae, lower leg bone fibuia. This drawing was done by Gail Raby, an artist with the CEU Prehistoric Museum (CEUPM), of what the hadrosaur would look like in real life. Drawing is copyright by CEUPM, used with permission. The following photographs are of the nodosaur found at the Carol/RJ Quarry: The back-top part of the skull closely resembles a PawPawsaurus nodosaurus and is shown with a replica of a PawPawsaurus skull along side of it. Another view of the back part of the skull. A view of the back of the skull before it had been removed from its jacket. The brain cavity of the nodosaur is not much larger than the size of a walnut. The lower jaw, and a close up of the small teeth in the jaw. The shoulder blade (scapula) shown still in the jacket and after it had been prepared in the lab. The hip bone (ilium) after it had been prepared in the lab. The front leg bone (humerus) top and the back leg bone (femur) bottom, after they have been prepared. Four different pieces of the armor that covered the nodosaur. The large jacket that was taken out in 1995 is shown with ribs articulated to the vertebraes, the other scapula and the lower jaw, exposed. A close up of the bones exposed in the large jacket Carole Jones , Don Burge, and John Bird are shown with some of the bone from the nodosaur. John Bird, in addition to supervising excavation at the quarry, is also supervisor of the bone prep lab and prepares much of the bone excavated by teams from CEU. This drawing was also done by Gail Raby of what the nodosaur would look like in real life. Drawing copyright by CEUPM.
The Carol/RJ Quarry is important because the Early Cretaceous time was a period of change, following the large numbers of dinosaur extinctions at the end of the Jurassic Period. During this period new dinosaur taxa would evolve and radiate until the extinction of the dinosaurs. If the age of the Carol/RJ Quarry is Albian age, then the hadrosaur will be the oldest found anywhere in the world. Paleontologists have said up on examining the skull, that it had Hadrosaurian (uncrested duckbill) features as well as Lambeosaurian (crested duckbill) features. Paleontologists have long suspected that these dinosaurs had a common ancestry that could be followed back to Iguandon of Jurassic age. The Hadrosaur from the Carol/RJ Quarry could possibly be that common ancestor. The Ankylosaurs and Nodosaurs of Late Cretaceous are thought to have a common ancestor in Stegosaurus from the Jurassic Period. The Nodosaur from the Carol/RJ Quarry could shed some light on that evolutionary path.
The work at Carol/RJ Dinosaur Quarry will continue until all fossilized material on the site has been recovered. The excavations at the Carol/RJ Dinosaur Quarry would not have been possible without the many volunteers who gave of their time and energy. Some day when the public views these dinosaurs in a museum, it is these volunteers that they can thank. The work at the quarry was not easy, they had to put up with the hot sun, mosquitos, nats, and sore muscles.
Remember that Vertebrae fossils are protected by law and that no collecting is allowed without a permit from the appropriate agency.
The radiological survey instruments, survey methods and data described or pictured in this web site have a patent pending.