Coelophysis vs Sphenodont at Oasis
Coelophysis was an early Theropod dinosaur. They grew up to 9.8 feet or 3 meters long. They were one of the earliest dinosaurs and most likely an ancestor of later Theropod dinosaurs like Velociraptor, Allosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex...among many others. We went to a Coelophysis quarry that is a dinosaur dig site called the Saints and Sinners Quarry. It is located in Eastern Utah. . Around 200 million years ago, in the Late Triassic Period or Early Jurassic Period there was a great sand dune desert in Western North America. There was an oasis in this ancient desert. This oasis had a lake and plants and many forms of animal life living there, including early crocodiles called Sphenodonts. They were smaller than modern crocs and they had a very different way of walking. Their legs were underneath them like a mammal. Over millions of years the crocodiles got "lazy" and their legs went back to being splayed out like a lizard's legs. Three were found there at the quarry by the Dinosaur National Monument head paleontologist and BYU paleontologists.
They call this set of fossils: The Three Amigos. Thee Three Amigos are now on display at the BYU Earth Science Museum. BYU is Brigham Young University.
The Three Amigos-Sphenodonts
This is the author of this blog holding a Coelophysis
Skull at the
BYU Earth Science Museum.
Matrix of Coelophysis bones at BYU Museum
Notice the claw.
Coelophysis Skull with a hammer for comparison
Skull at the
BYU Earth Science Museum.
Notice the claw.
Remember that Spenodonts are early ancestors of crocodilians or crocodiles, alligators, and caiman. We went to what was once an oasis (now the Saints and Sinners Quarry in Eastern Utah). The below photos are from that quarry. We were on a BYU Geology Alumni Field Trip. My wife graduated in Geology from BYU. Later we both got Masters Degrees in Geoscience from Mississippi State U.
A few more Coelophysis bones at the Saints and Sinners Quarry.
They named it the "Saints and Sinners Quarry" because one of the people working it was a Latter Day Saint and at least one other was not LDS so they thought it would be a cute name. There were three or four principal investigators of the site and they are a good example of people from different backgrounds working well together. We should all get along so well.
We watched Dr. Brooks Britt form BYU and Dr. Dan Chure interact on the field trip. Dr. Chure named the quarry. They were clearly good friends and so full of knowledge that they shared with all of us on the field trip. Dan also told of how they noticed the 3 foot or 1 meter thick layer of rock that clearly was not the "Nugget Sandstone" of the surrounding rock. The other principal investigators and one was a co-discoverer were Dr. George E. Engelmann of the University of Nebraska, and Jesse Dean Shumway...who did his Masters Thesis for BYU on the Saints and Sinners Quarry.
This is part of a Coelophysis skull that is still in the cliff at the quarry.
The upsidedown L shape is the back of the skull and the long bone is
the top part of the mouth.
They named it the "Saints and Sinners Quarry" because one of the people working it was a Latter Day Saint and at least one other was not LDS so they thought it would be a cute name. There were three or four principal investigators of the site and they are a good example of people from different backgrounds working well together. We should all get along so well.
We watched Dr. Brooks Britt form BYU and Dr. Dan Chure interact on the field trip. Dr. Chure named the quarry. They were clearly good friends and so full of knowledge that they shared with all of us on the field trip. Dan also told of how they noticed the 3 foot or 1 meter thick layer of rock that clearly was not the "Nugget Sandstone" of the surrounding rock. The other principal investigators and one was a co-discoverer were Dr. George E. Engelmann of the University of Nebraska, and Jesse Dean Shumway...who did his Masters Thesis for BYU on the Saints and Sinners Quarry.
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