Excavaciones de verano en el Jurásico Superior de Utah

Este verano se ha realizado una prospección en los sedimentos del Jurásico Superior de la Formación Morrison del Condado de San Juan en Utah. La expedición fue organizada por el Dinosaur Institute del Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County y en ella han participado también Pedro Dantas (Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Lisboa) y Francisco Ortega (UNED). Este es el primer contacto para establecer vínculos entre equipos a ambos lados del Atlántico que permitan abordar cuestiones sobre las relaciones entre faunas de ambos continentes durante el Jurásico Superior. Por el momento aquí está la nota emitida por el Dinosaur Institute NHM Los Angeles County.

The Dinosaur Institute's summer field season began in June with an expedition to the beautiful badlands of San Juan County, southeastern Utah. We took a small crew of eight people, consisting of some of our staff and volunteers, along with colleagues from Spain and Portugal. The purpose of this trip was to explore the important late Jurassic aged rocks (~150mya) in that area and examine the potential for future expeditions. The drive from Los Angeles took us through some of the most beautiful parts of the Southwest, including the Permian aged pinnacles of Monument Valley and the red Triassic rocks of the Navajo Nation. We set up camp for three weeks on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property near the town of Blanding, UT. This was the Museum's first collecting trip in this area, therefore a lot of time was spent examining maps, driving and hiking. The badlands were mostly made up of layers of green/gray and purple sediments. Overall the mission was a success! We uncovered several sauropod specimens that we were able to bring back to the lab this year but we also discovered some exciting sites for next year! These include Stegosaurus remains, sauropod tracks and yet unknown dinosaur remains.

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En la fotografía (de izda a dcha): Luis Chiappe, Doug Goodreau, Francisco Ortega, Doyle Trankina y Pedro Dantas trasladan un bloque con varias vertebras de un dinosaurios saurópodo