Campaña Morrison 2009

En el proceso de intentar comprender como fucionan las faunas de vertebrados a ambos lados del Atlántico durante el Jurásico Superior, continúan las colaboraciones Ibérico-Norteamericanas (ver mas información abajo) con el Dinosaur Institute del Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County en el Condado de San Juan en Utah.
La intervención de esta primavera se ha centrado en continuar la excavación del saurópodo localizado en 2007 y la prospeccion del área a la busqueda nuevos afloramientos.
Nota publicada por el NHM:
From March 30 through April 21, the Dinosaur Institute conducted work in San Juan County, southeastern Utah, where they have been working in the Morrison Formation (Late Jurassic) exposures since 2007. The field team of Dinosaur Institute staff were joined by colleagues from Spain, Argentina, and the AMNH as well as the NHM’s own Kristin Friedrich from Marketing, Dinosaur Mysteries project manager and assistant Jon Evans and Jessica Lally, and the Dinosaur Mysteries design team from Evidence Design. This visit will allow the design team to use their experience to incorporate more into the exhibit about the fieldwork we conduct at NHM.
The team revisited one of two quarries opened up in 2008, and an abundance of new bones were uncovered. From this quarry the team collected a series of seven articulated sauropod vertebrae, as well as other isolated vertebrae, chevrons, and a potential Skull element. In addition to this quarry the team discovered a new site containing many articulated caudal vertebrae of a different kind of sauropod that may be part of a more complete specimen. 13 vertebrae were collected, and the site will be excavated further next year.
Overall it was a very successful trip and, despite the freezing temperatures, we had a lot of fun and we are looking forward to returning to these extremely productive sites next year!
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Mas información:

• Notas previas aquí y aquí
• Referencia en The Occasional Newsletter of the Research and Collections Staff Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
• Los primeros resultados publicados: Milàn, J y Chiappe, L.M. (2009) First American Record of the Jurassic Ichnospecies Deltapodus brodricki and a Review of the Fossil Record of Stegosaurian Footprints. The Journal of Geology, 117: 343–348 (Resumen)
• Foto arriba: Andrea Arcucci, Fernando Escaso, Francisco Ortega y José Luis Sanz en un claro "robado" fotográfico durante la excavación (Guillermina Giordano debe estar detrás de la cámara).
• Foto media1: Fernado Escaso en el proceso de perfilado de parte de la serie dorsal de un saurópodo.
• Foto media2: Doug Goodreau, Andrea Arcucci, Guillermina Giordano y Stephanie Abramowicz mostrando la satisfacción de tener el material extraído y ya cargado en el remolque.
  
• Foto abajo: con Stephanie Abramowicz (sin comentarios)