It was fun to read all the world-wide adventures last week! The imaginary excursions started with a trip to Antarctica and continued on to the continents of Australia, Asia (Mongolia, South Korea, China, India), Africa (Tanzania), Europe (England, Scotland, Germany), South America (Peru, Venezuela, Brazil) and North America (Mexico). Did I miss any? (If you didn't follow the instructions for the post, you may not have earned all the points -- so do carefully read each week's "rules" before commenting.)
What about a similar imaginary trip to a place in the United States? Where in our 50 states should we go to have an excellent chance of finding dinosaur bones? I need as exact a location as you can provide such as what town is nearby or what highway passes close to our "prospecting" area. So your assignment this week is to find a prospecting location in just one state -- but not a state already chosen by someone else who has posted earlier.
The best way to find a likely spot is to learn where dino bones have already been found. If you do a Google search on dinosaur fossil discoveries from a specific state, you will probably locate where an exciting dino find has already occurred. Please report about that discovery here (and provide a link to your source). You need to provide enough detail such that we could all get in a van and follow your directions to head over there right away to find more dino bones (after checking on current field conditions like snow level!).
I can tell you that some states are much easier places to find dino fossils than other states. So the earlier you investigate and report, the easier this task will be. There are 28 students in this class so we are hoping to assemble a trip through 28 of our states. I'm looking forward to planning out what would be a fun and productive (and, unfortunately, imaginary) trip for this class to take! Thanks for good directions as I map out our itinerary! Dr. B.
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My imaginary dinosaur expedition in the US will take me to New Jersey to one of the most prolific site for dinosaur, and other pre-historic fossils in the state, the Ellisdale Fossil Site located in the valley of the Crosswicks Creek in Monmouth County. There have been many extraordinary fossil discoveries at this location so I’m hoping to find more evidence of pre-historic life from around the late Cretaceous period. After making my way to New Jersey via plane, I meet up with colleagues and a few students from Princeton University to start our expedition. As a matter of public record we know Ellisdale Fossil Site to be at the exact coordinates 40.3° N, 74.3° W: paleocoordinates 39.4° N, 44.0° W. For driving, though we just follow a map to the northwest corner of Monmouth County, on the boarder of Pennsylvania. We take the 295 exit from 95, and pull off the road to find the river valley that has been set aside by New Jersey State Conservatory as this fossil rich site. The discovery of the Ornithischia, late Cretaceous era herbivores which in thought to be closely related to avian dinosaurs (known as “bird-hipped”) gives me, and the crew, the hope that we can find more evidence connecting avian and non-avian dinosaurs from this time period. Saurischia, another late Cretaceous dinosaur known for being “lizard-hipped” has also been found here. We searched along the valley floor hoping to see exposed fossil beds. Although dinosaur fossils were our main goal, we couldn’t overlook all of the other fossil treasures that we encountered, including amber, fossil tracks, ferns and roots, as well as mammal and reptile fossils. Although January isn’t the best time for digging, current temperatures hovering around the low twenties and high teens, we were able to access areas that would be too muddy or wet during the spring and summer seasons. We find a few small fossils of what we believe to be the Ornithischia and mark their location for extraction at a later date. We take photos and samples of smaller fossils out with us at the end of the day and plan a dig for sometime in the springtime. After returning to Princeton, the crew and I label our finds and plan for the upcoming spring expedition back to the Ellisdale Fossil Site. Over beers we discuss the future of paleontology and brag about past finds. I fly back out to Seattle, satisfied with the prospect of new fossil discoveries in spring time.
Description of Ellisdale site and its fossil history: http://paleobiodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=basicCollectionSearch&collection_no=14455
This is a map of the exact location of the Ellisdale Fossil Site: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?msa=0&mid=zlY48eTMIq2I.kDMDh0AGlz4c
Website describes the morphology of Ornithischia and Saurischia, both dinosaur fossils found at the site: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/dinomm.html
I deceided to go to Utah national monument with my team next week to search for dinosaur remains. Dinosaur National Monument is spread over 210,000 acres along the Colorado and Utah border. The temperature in Utah is around 45 degree to 50 degree in the day and 20-25 degree at night.
We booked the air ticket and planned to stay there for 5 days.
We will arrive the utah airport in the morning, and then we will check in the hotel 5 miles away from the Dinosaur national monuments in utah.
For the 2nd and 3rd day, we plan to start our trip in the early morning to discover dinosaurs. we will drive on Utah State Highway 149 and drive to the visitor center to learn more about the road conditions. Then we will walk into the park and start looking for the dinosaur remains.
Utah has a lots of discovery in the past, and I believe this place is contain a rich amount of fossils.
We will end our searching on in the afternoon of the 3rd day, and if we do not find any remains, we will go to the Quarry Exhibit Hall to see other discovery.
We will drive to colardo side of the park, and enjoy the view and search for dinosaur remains. Although no dinosaur fossil were found in this area so far, we still would like to enjoy the view.
And we will take the fligt back to seattle on the fifth day.
I know exactly where I am going on my “imaginary” trip to look for fossils. I am going back home to the place I grew up which is Havre, Mt. In all honesty, this trip might actually not be as imaginary as I say beings I actually plan to take a trip to some of these places in real life, possibly this summer.
I grew up in Havre for 16 years, so I know from experience that I will have to wait until summertime to dig. This town reaches temperatures of negative 40-50 degrees as well as 40-50 below wind-chill factor, so the ground will need a good thawing. I plan to drive my truck, with all my supplies in the back from Seattle to Havre (this drive will take 11 hours and 37 minutes). Beings I have plenty of family there I will have nice meals to eat and a cozy place to stay. When I arrive, I will go up highway 2 until I get to the rather modest Holiday Village Mall, and right behind there are the “badlands”. We used to go there and look for arrowheads as a kid, but this time I will meet some friends and look for some bigger finds. The next day I will go to the place I have been waiting to search the most. Just north of Havre along the Milk River (it really looks like milk….actually closer to chocolate milk), near the Canadian border there is a family who owns a ranch called Highland hill Farm. They have found MANY bones as well as teeth and other fossils. They are very nice people (James and Mike Hirst) who welcome people in to search. They actually guarantee you will find something. I have included a video shot in their home of what may possibly be Albertasaurus fossils among others. Once here, these lovely people will take me out for a day of digging and excavating. While I will only have time for this one stop, and hopefully all my finds will fit in my truck, there are plenty of awesome spots around Montana for searching. I have enclosed a map of the Montana dinosaur trail. Montana is the 4th largest state and takes a while to get from place to place. Another spot on my wish list would be the Hell Creek formation near Jordan Montana (south-east part of the state) where the famous Barnum Brown found the fisrst T-Rex. I hope you will enjoy the videos and maps I have posted here.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp09GF-_H14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzI7RAd0OpE
MAP OF MONTANA DINOSAUR TRAIL: http://mtdinotrail.org
GOOGLE MAPS: Seattle to Havre, Mt. -https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Seattle,+WA/Havre,+Mt/@47.4606063,-124.8030421,5z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x5490102c93e83355:0x102565466944d59a!2m2!1d-122.3320708!2d47.6062095!1m5!1m1!1s0x53401cbe0cfc8309:0xebf50fa5ec180aa1!2m2!1d-109.6840887!2d48.549999!3e0
For our latest trip we are going to venture into perhaps my favorite state, Colorado. In Colorado, at the bast of the Rockies on the eastern side we have Dinosaur Ridge, which is now a tourist activity spot, but once was the site of a new discovery of magnificent fossils and trace fossils.
In 1877 Arthur Lakes, from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, discovered a few of the best known fossils today. From Dinosaur ridge, we have seen the Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Colorados state fossil--Allosaurus. These species all were identified as living in the late Jurassic age.
The Morrison Formation is located in the Rockies to the north of the town Morrison. It is a group of rock layers at the Dinosaur Quarry, located within Dinosaur Ridge. The formation extends all the way to Wyoming via the Rockies and has outcrops in many surrounding states. Essentially, wherever the Rockies are, there is probably part of the Morrison Formation, and evidence of past dinosaur life.
The nice thing about locating this monument is you only need to travel slightly west of Denver proper. If you drive along I 70 W, and veer towards hwy 470 you will pass right by Dinosaur Ridge.
Inside the ridge, there are multiple trails one can walk and see footprints of "an Iguanodon like plant eating dinosaurs". The large amount of footprints found have earned this track discover the name the "Dinosaur Freeway".
http://www.dinoridge.org/index.html
My expedition will lead us to the state of Nevada. My goal is to find fossils of the legendary Shonisaurus, an aquatic dinosaur that lived during the late Triassic period some 215 Ma.
This 50 foot, 30 ton monster was carnivorous, eating a diet from small fish to large squid.
During this period of time, the state of Nevada was actually submerged underwater, the floor bed then being perfectly acceptable to recently dying animals, and the preservation of fossils. This was only a small part of Pangea, before it began to break up around 100 Ma, and the land mass of our continents began to submerge, or appear.
Our expedition takes us to the Shoshone mountain range, a lush area of 400 square miles, with plenty of rugged terrain to house sedimentary rocks. After finding out the age of the rocks at the highest and lowest points of our search area, we can calculate exactly what part of the mountain ranges to search for a dinosaur that lived 215 million years ago.
Our journey there will be seemingly uneventful, as we drive from Las Vegas to Belmont, a small old mining town that offers little more than the company of it's multi dozen inhabitants. As we continue up the miles, we will soon approach the base of Jefferson summit. This is where we can set up camp and scout for the best searching locations.
The terrain is at a low enough elevation that the weather should be consistent and rewarding. As we shouldn't venture too far up the mountain, we will be comfortable with adequate amounts of water, weather proof jackets, food, and weather resistant tents.
Well, if I'm going to look for dinosaur bones, I'm going to head over to Bellevue.
-Bellevue, Michigan that is (I feel obligated to include my home state in our twenty-eight). That's where Daniel Fisher discovered forty-two mastodon bones in his backyard with the help of his neighbors back in November of 2014 (source). With such an important discovery in recent years (the second Mastodon in Michigan in 2014), this leads me to believe that Michigan must be a hotbed for untapped fossils.
So, we're going to head on over to America's thumb and we're going to go hunting for Mastodons (which was proclaimed the official state fossil in 2002). Dr. B rented a charter bus (with all expenses paid) and we're going to spend a couple days in Michigan (this summer of course, when Michigan is not covered in three feet of snow). It's a long 2,000+ mile road trip along I-90 from Seattle and we're going to take it through Chicago, until it exits to I-94 towards Detroit. Past Battle Creek, we're going to merge onto I-69 and get off in the town of Olivet. If we're not all at each other's throats from three days on the road, we're going to camp out under the stars in the middle of nowhere (Bellevue, Michigan). Since the temperatures are pushing 80° with intense humidity on a summer day (mmmm... warm thoughts on this semi-cold day in January), we've packed plenty of water and bug repellent to keep us safe. We've already contacted the city of Bellevue and they've given us permission to start digging, so grab a chisel! Watch out for any prehistoric whale bones or teeth as well as any mastodon fossils. It's a little known fact that the lower Peninsula of Michigan used to be completely underwater during the Devonian era (source -check this website out for some amazing high resolution prehistoric maps) and as a result tons of prehistoric whale fossils! Remember anything we find we are going to donate to the University of Michigan's Paleontology Museum, so please be careful! There's sandwiches and Powerade on the bus.
My expedition brings me back to my home state of Texas. In North Central Texas, snaking in sort of a diagonal pattern from the Red River down southwest through Del Rio, there are an abundance of sedimentary rock exposures from the Cretaceous period. Although much of Texas was once covered by sea, this particular area was mostly shore and therefore had an abundance of flora and fauna that included some incredible dinosaurs. Since these formations cover such an enormous area, my focus is going to be in two places: first, a town near Fort Worth called Flower Mound.
In Texas, the summers are searingly hot, which is why our expedition will start in the early spring to give us plenty of good weather before the heat gets unbearable.
Flower Mound's claim to dinosaur fame is the discovery of the Protohadros byrdi, a hadrosaur (duck-billed) dinosaur believed to be a herbivore. From there, I would also like to explore the Jones Ranch, a known excavation site in Central Texas where the Pleurocoelus was discovered. This gigantic dinosaur is also Texas's state dino! Jones Ranch is only about an hour and a half from the formation in Flower Mound, via Highway 121. Along the way are some interesting stops like the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, and if you're feeling touristy, the Cattle Drive, Billy Bob's Honky Tonk and some really great Barbecue joints.
Here's a couple interesting sources about dinosaur presence in Texas, and about the Jones and Flower Mound excavation areas:
http://www.lonestardinosaurs.org/photo_album/jones.html
http://www.lonestardinosaurs.org/photo_album/flower.html
http://www.paleoportal.org/index.php?globalnav=time_space§ionnav=state&state_id=42&period_id=18
I notice that Lei Wang mentioned Colorado , but he is finally talking about Utah.
So let's start our new expedition to Colorado.
Our fist location to visit is Denver and Cañon City. It is because in the late 1800s led to a Dinosaur Rush that paralleled the state’s Gold Rush, with paleontologists battling for the latest finds,and it discovered amount of dinosaur fossils. So it would be a good place to discover fossil. At least observing that which place fit for discover fossils.
For the 2nd day trip, we are going to Dinosaur Ridge west of Denver and Garden Park near Cañon City. These two place are legendry dig place. It has diggded a lot of dinosaur fossils in history.
The 3rd day we are planing to the Dry Mesa Quarry near Delta and Riggs Hill.
These two places are attractive to the dinosaur fossil hunter. It obiviously told us it is best place for discover dinosaur fossil.
The last day trip place would be Dinosaur Hill near Grand Junction and the Dinosaur National Monument in the state’s northwest corner.And these two are the place where the "bone wars" began.
The groundbreaking work there by local residents in 1877 brought two of the world’s leading paleontologists to Colorado and kicked off what became known as the “Bone Wars” as the scientists vied to be the first to find, excavate, describe and name new species.
http://realcoloradotravel.com/colorado-remains-a-leader-in-dinosaur-discoveries/4152/
We're heading to the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness in New Mexico to get more evidence for questions that have been raised by the discovery of a new genus of Ankylosaur. This dinosaur has been name Ziapelta Sanjuanensis and closely resembles the northern Ankylosaurs. The question is how are the southern and northern Ankylosaurs related when North America was divided in two by a vast inland sea during the Late Cretaceous period.
The trip to Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness will take place in the fall when there are more mild temperatures and less of the high winds and rainfall. There is no shade and no potable water so pack accordingly.
Directions:
-Take NM 371 south of Farmington, NM for 43 3/4 miles
-Turn east onto County Road 7500 (this road is not paved and though maintained there may be washed out areas so keep a careful eye on this.)
-Continue on CR 7500 for 13 1/4 miles
-Arrive at the parking area
A trail will lead out of the parking area but after that you'll have to keep track of your surroundings to make it back to the vehicle. Don't forget your GPS and map.
http://nmnaturalhistory.org/introducing-ziapelta-new-mexicos-newest-dinosaur.html
http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/blm_special_areas/wilderness_and_wsas/wilderness_areas/bisti.html
http://www.americansouthwest.net/new_mexico/de-na-zin/wilderness-area.html
Kathryn O`Connor
My imaginary expedition will lead me in Massachusetts, looking for the fossils of a dinosaur called Anchisaurus,meaning "near lizard",which lived there during the Jurassic period between 200 million to 188 million years ago.Following the path of William smith,the first who discovered the Springfield bones,i decided to fly to Massachusetts,and lead my search in the Springfield Armory Dinosaur site.
Since this site is now under the control of the National Park service as Springfield Armory National historic site,I signed a paper to promise that anything i find there will be the property of the Government of the united states of America.
after some weeks,my team and me found several fossils,but we were unable to analyze then since we promise that that would the belongings of the U.S.
Here are some interesting sites to make you have a clear idea on the expedition led in this area of North America..
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinotemplates/Anchisaurus.shtml
http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/paleontology/pub/grd3_3/spar1.htm
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/dinosaurdiscovery/l/blstatedinosaurmap.htm
My expedition will be to Wyoming! Inspired by the alluring Wyoming Dinosaur Center. We will be heading out to Newcastle Wyoming. I may not legally have my license but I know we'll be driving down highway 16. We'll be set on searching for finds of Torvosaurus, better known as Triceratops. I have linked an article on the overlap. Perhaps our team will take a look and do some investigation, observation, and inquiry to compare to these articles.Perhaps some work with biostratigraphy could help us with analysis and dating.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17192624
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/03/triceratops-skeletons wyoming-dinosaurs_n_3379894.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/facts/Torvosaurus/
I've never been good at describing directions but it will be a little over a 16 hour drive so the crew will need to be taking turns. I included a link for more specific directions provided by Google Maps for clarity sake!
https://www.google.com/maps?ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.85076809,d.cGU&biw=1366&bih=667&dpr=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&gl=us&daddr=Newcastle,+WY&saddr=Seattle,+WA&panel=1&f=d&fb=1&geocode=KVUz6JMsEJBUMZrVRGlGZSUQ;KTNnx9CKcGKHMbIg2O_5W3cN&dirflg=d&sa=X&ei=acfNVMWaCsi0ogTn4IGYCg&ved=0CC4Qox0wAg
For my excursion I will be taking my small crew to the one and only Tombstone Arizona. Specifically in the eastern Tombstone Hills in Cochise County. The fossils are found in limestone formations. To start our travel from Seattle we will be flying into Tucson and going southeast from there to tombstone. Before we leave we will gather supplies and renting a large van in Tucson. Other areas of Arizona have dinosaur fossils because of their rugged sedimentary environment that fossilized dead dinosaurs so well. Upon our arrival it is a dry, spring morning and we want to start before it gets to hot and we have to call it a day. We set out to a limestone formation and have already discovered many dig sites from previous excursions. We continue this for the next several days and discover a few petrified wood samples. Which are quite common for the state as during the Jurassic period the state was covered in conifers.
Sources:
http://www.t-rat.com/Pages/WhereToFindFossils.html
http://www.gatorgirlrocks.com/state-by-state/arizona.html
I would like to ask you all to take a trip with me to the Navajo Reservation in Kayenta, Arizona. Coordinates are: 36° 42′ 51″ N, 110° 15′ 37″ W. Kayenta is located 25 miles south of Monument Valley. The closest amenities will be located in Monument Valley. The hotel we will be staying in is the Hampton Inn Kayenta on Junction US Highway 160. After getting to our hotels and settling in, its already late in the afternoon so we drive out to the Kayenta Formation where the discovery of Dilophosaurus took place by paleontologist Samuel Paul Welles. We want to familiarize ourselves with the area before we get started with our search bright and early the next morning. Dilophosaurus was a dinosaur that roamed the earth in the early Jurassic period. “The Dilophosaurus is named after its conspicuous crests. The prefix 'di' stands for 'two'. The word 'lophos' is a Greek word denoting 'ridge'. The suffix '-saurus' is derived from the Greek word 'sauros' which translates to 'lizard'. Thus the name 'Dilophosaurus' means 'a lizard with two ridges'.” (Dinosaurfact.net)
The weather in Arizona is a very hot dry heat. Plenty of water should be kept on your person at all times with the proper skin protectant to prevent sun damage to the skin. It may sound ridiculous but I like to wear long sleeves instead of absorbing direct sunlight as it can become painful fairly quick. The sun will be going down soon so we will head back to our hotel for a good night’s rest before our journey begins in the morning. Wish us luck!
Websites used:
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/Dinosaurs-by-State/tp/The-Dinosaurs-And-Prehistoric-Animals-Of-Arizona.htm
http://www.dinosaurfact.net/jurassic/Dilophosaurus.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayenta_Formation
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?cat=monument%20valley&state=AZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrh2BPR5s7Y&spfreload=10
Above is a video about findings in Arizona.
We will travel to the Arizona Museum of Natural History. It'll take us about 22 hours to get there but it will be a nice road trip.
Get on I-5 S from Meridian Ave N
2 min (0.8 mi)
Head west toward College Way N
23 ft
Take the 1st right onto College Way N
0.1 mi
Continue onto Meridian Ave N
0.3 mi
Turn right onto N 107th St
0.1 mi
Turn right onto the Interstate 5 S ramp
0.2 mi
Follow I-90 E, I-82 E and I-84 E to US-93 S in Jerome County. Exit from I-84 E
9 h 16 min (631 mi)
Get on I-15 S/US-93 S in Clark County from US-93 S and NV-318 S
7 h 19 min (478 mi)
Follow I-15 S/US-93 S and I-515 S/US-95 S to US-93 S in Henderson
37 min (42.1 mi)
Get on I-40 E/US-93 S in Kingman
1 h 18 min (82.9 mi)
Follow I-40 E to US-93 S. Take exit 71 from I-40 E/US-93 S
18 min (22.5 mi)
Follow US-93 S and US-60 E to AZ-303 Loop/Bob Stump Memorial Pkwy in Surprise
2 h 2 min (135 mi)
Follow AZ-303 Loop/Bob Stump Memorial Pkwy, I-10 E and AZ-202 Loop E to N Alma School Rd. Take exit 11 from AZ-202 Loop E
45 min (49.4 mi)
Continue on N Alma School Rd. Take W University Dr to N Macdonald in Mesa
7 min (3.3 mi)
53 N Macdonald
Mesa, AZ 85201
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27441156
The link below I just wanted to share because I read through it and found it interesting. Enjoy!
http://www.theabf.org/sites/default/files/land_of_dinosaurs_itinerary2.pdf
My expedition would first lead us to Thermopolis, Wyoming. Although summer would probably be ideal for this journey, currently there isn't a lot of snow on the ground, but the forecast does call for some later this week. I would like to stop by the Wyoming Dinosaur Center and get a look at the dinosaurs already found around that area, this center is known to be a good one for those interested in dinosaurs. I would then lead the team east around Newcastle, although I would go a bit south or maybe north. Recently there were some rare triceratops found bit south from there, so I'm confident some more bones are waiting to be dug up, which we will do. We would pack according the weather, and spend a few weeks scouting and doing some digging. In my scenario we would discover at least one more triceratops then venture back to Seattle feeling very accomplished.
Here's the directions we would use:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/North+Seattle+College,+College+Way+North,+Seattle,+WA/The+Wyoming+Dinosaur+Center,+110+Carter+Ranch+Road,+Thermopolis,+WY+82443/@45.337468,-124.0671532,5z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m19!4m18!1m10!1m1!1s0x5490140174d2fc9d:0xef595859431902b6!2m2!1d-122.332292!2d47.699598!3m4!1m2!1d-120.3087483!2d47.1119714!3s0x549988b78b9f659b:0x2786ec4ea3c44712!1m5!1m1!1s0x534ca92823e555bf:0xb31db98c00d789cd!2m2!1d-108.200482!2d43.643263!3e0
then:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Thermopolis,+WY/Newcastle,+WY/@43.5029267,-107.3824347,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x534ca8ccd5256ad5:0x6163bb69160e03ae!2m2!1d-108.2120432!2d43.6460672!1m5!1m1!1s0x8762708ad0c76733:0xd775bf9efd820b2!2m2!1d-104.2049408!2d43.8547003
Wyoming Dinosaur Center's site:
http://www.wyodino.org/
And the site I found out about the triceratops at:
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/08/26/more-dinosaur-fossils-found-in-ne-wyoming-mass-grave/
I would start my search in Austin, Texas the dry desert lands would provide an excellent site to explore and dig for dinosaur bones. Such a wide terrain full of possible specimens to be looked at. I know that there must be some un-extracted dinosaur bones that have not been seen possibly in one of the big canyons of Texas.
This week we will be going on a trip up to Alaska, or more specifically the Matanuska Formation (Turonian) in the Talkeetna Mountains, latitude 61°52’N and longitude 147°21’W at about an elevation of 950m. The site is privately owned, so after getting permission from the owners, we will pack up and get on a plane from SeaTac airport into Anchorage, where we will then be picked up by Copper Valley air-service and flown directly to our excavation site. Although the company offers some supplies, be sure to have everything you need for the trip because once we are dropped off, the nearest town is Glennallen, and that would require you to hike. The area we are looking at is the same area that the first hardosaur was found. This will be an exciting trip and I hope to find some more fossils while we are there.
http://www.alaskacenters.gov/alaskan-dinosaurs.cfm
https://www.uaf.edu/museum/collections/earth/publications/Pasch-May-1998-Hadrosaur-Matanuska-Fm.pdf
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinofossils/locations/
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