Garden Park, Colorado
Encyclopedia
Garden Park, in southcentral Colorado
, is known for its Jurassic
dinosaurs and the role the specimens played in the infamous bone wars
of the late 19th century. Located 10 km (6.2 mi) north of Cañon City, Colorado
, the name originates from the area providing vegetables to the miners at nearby Cripple Creek
in the 19th century. Garden Park proper is a triangular valley surrounded by cliffs on the southeast and southwest and by mountains to the north; however, the name is also refers to the dinosaur sites on top and along the cliffs. The dinosaur sites now form the Garden Park Paleontological Resource Area, which is overseen by the Bureau of Land Management
.
. The region is bisected by Four Mile Creek (also called Oil Creek), which has carved a canyon through the Mesozoic and Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. One of these Mesozoic strata is the Morrison Formation
, which is exposed within the canyon. However because the formation contains high amounts of swelling clays, large faulted blocks or slump-blocks of the formation are slowly moving towards the creek. The result is to make it difficult to correlate the various dinosaur quarries because exposures are limited and not continuous.
The formation in Garden Park can be divided informally into a lower and upper unit. The lower unit is composed primarily green and gray mudstones, with numerous lenticular, white to tan to gray sandstones. The upper is composed mostly of red mudstone, with lesser amounts of yellowish, often tabular sandstone. These two units probably correspond to the Tidwell, Saltwash and Brushy Basin members of the Morrison Formation on the Colorado Plateau.
Dinosaurs from Garden Park on display include Allosaurus
fragilis, Diplodocus
longus, Ceratosaurus
nasicornis, and Stegosaurus
stenops at the National Museum of Natural History, Haplocanthosaurus
delfsi at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Othnielosaurus
consors (then called Othnielia
rex), Stegosaurus stenops and a clutch of Preprismatoolithus coloradensis eggs at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Dinosauria
Dinosauria
Quarry 1
Dinosauria
Quarry 2
Dinosauria
Quarry 3
Dinosauria
Quarry 4
Dinosauria
Quarry 5 (=Denver Museum of Natural History Camarasaurus)
Dinosauria
Quarry 6
Dinosauria
Quarry 7
Dinosauria
Quarry 8 (CS 2; The Fort)
Dinosauria
Quarry 9
Dinosauria
Quarry 10
Dinosauria
Quarry 11
Dinosauria
Quarry 12
Dinosauria
Quarry 13
Dinosauria indeterminant
Quarry 14
Dinosauria
Quarry 15 (Oil Tract)
Dinosauria
The following cannot be assigned to specific quarries
Reptilia
Dinosauria
Dinosauria
Egg Gulch
Dinosauria
Kessler's Quarry
Reptilia
Dinosauria
|
Amphibia
Reptilia
Dinosauria
Mammalia
Meyer Site 1
Reptilia
Dinosauria
Meyer Site 2
Dinosauria
Meyer Site 3
Dinosauria
Not-A-Haplocanthosaurus Quarry
Dinosauria
Small's Quarry
Osteichthyes
Reptilia
Dinosauria
Mammalia
Valley of Death Locality
Reptilia
Dinosauria
Reptilia
Felch Quarry 1
Osteichthyes
Reptilia
Dinosauria
Felch Quarry 2
Dinosauria
Lucas's Site
Reptilia
Dinosauria
|}
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, is known for its Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
dinosaurs and the role the specimens played in the infamous bone wars
Bone Wars
The Bone Wars, also known as the "Great Dinosaur Rush", refers to a period of intense fossil speculation and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh...
of the late 19th century. Located 10 km (6.2 mi) north of Cañon City, Colorado
Cañon City, Colorado
The City of Cañon City is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Fremont County, State of Colorado. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the city population was 16,000 in 2005. Cañon City is noted for being the location of nine state and four ...
, the name originates from the area providing vegetables to the miners at nearby Cripple Creek
Cripple Creek, Colorado
The City of Cripple Creek is a Statutory City that is the county seat of Teller County, Colorado, United States. Cripple Creek is a former gold mining camp located southwest of Colorado Springs near the base of Pikes Peak. The Cripple Creek Historic District, which received National Historic...
in the 19th century. Garden Park proper is a triangular valley surrounded by cliffs on the southeast and southwest and by mountains to the north; however, the name is also refers to the dinosaur sites on top and along the cliffs. The dinosaur sites now form the Garden Park Paleontological Resource Area, which is overseen by the Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...
.
Geology
Garden Park was formed by erosion of sedimentary rocks that have been distorted by uplift of the Rocky MountainsRocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
. The region is bisected by Four Mile Creek (also called Oil Creek), which has carved a canyon through the Mesozoic and Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. One of these Mesozoic strata is the Morrison Formation
Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...
, which is exposed within the canyon. However because the formation contains high amounts of swelling clays, large faulted blocks or slump-blocks of the formation are slowly moving towards the creek. The result is to make it difficult to correlate the various dinosaur quarries because exposures are limited and not continuous.
The formation in Garden Park can be divided informally into a lower and upper unit. The lower unit is composed primarily green and gray mudstones, with numerous lenticular, white to tan to gray sandstones. The upper is composed mostly of red mudstone, with lesser amounts of yellowish, often tabular sandstone. These two units probably correspond to the Tidwell, Saltwash and Brushy Basin members of the Morrison Formation on the Colorado Plateau.
Dinosaurs
The discovery of dinosaurs in the Garden Park area has been presented numerous times by Schuchert and LeVene, Shur, Ostrom and McIntosh, and Jaffe. The lesser known post-Marsh and Cope collecting of dinosaurs has been presented by Monaco. She recounts the expeditions by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in the early 20th century, the Denver Museum of Natural History in the 1930 and 1990s, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in the mid-1950s.Dinosaurs from Garden Park on display include Allosaurus
Allosaurus
Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...
fragilis, Diplodocus
Diplodocus
Diplodocus , or )is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a Neo-Latin term derived from Greek "double" and "beam", in reference to its double-beamed chevron bones...
longus, Ceratosaurus
Ceratosaurus
Ceratosaurus meaning "horned lizard", in reference to the horn on its nose , was a large predatory theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period , found in the Morrison Formation of North America, in Tanzania and Portugal...
nasicornis, and Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...
stenops at the National Museum of Natural History, Haplocanthosaurus
Haplocanthosaurus
Haplocanthosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur. Two species, H. delfsi and H. priscus, are known from incomplete fossil skeletons. It lived during the late Jurassic period , 155 to 152 million years ago. The type species is H. priscus, and the referred species H...
delfsi at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Othnielosaurus
Othnielosaurus
Othnielosaurus is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur that lived about 155 to 148 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic-age Morrison Formation of the western United States. It is named in honor of famed paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, and was formerly assigned to the genus...
consors (then called Othnielia
Othnielia
Othnielia is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur, named after its original describer, Professor Othniel Charles Marsh, an American paleontologist of the 19th century...
rex), Stegosaurus stenops and a clutch of Preprismatoolithus coloradensis eggs at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History Quarry
Reptilia- Testudines
- Amphichelydia
- GlyptopsGlyptopsGlyptops is an extinct genus of cryptodire turtle dating from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods 155 to 99 m.y.a. Fossils have been found in South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas from both the Morrison and Cedar Mountain formations. The type species is G...
plicatus
- Glyptops
- Amphichelydia
- Crocodilia
- Mesosuchia
- EutretauranosuchusEutretauranosuchusEutretauranosuchus is a genus of goniopholidid mesoeucrocodylian. It is known from several specimens collected from the Late Jurassic-age Morrison Formation, including fossils from Garden Park and Dry Mesa Quarry in Colorado and Como Bluff in Wyoming. The type species is E. delfsi...
delfsi
- Eutretauranosuchus
- Mesosuchia
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Haplocanthosaurus delfsi
- Sauropoda
Cope's Quarries
CS 1 (Cope's Nipple = Saurian Hill)Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Camarasaurus supremus (h)
- Caulodon leptoganus (h) nomen dubium (now Camarasaurus sp.)
- Theropod
- Laelaps trihedrodon nomen dubium (now Allosaurus)
- Sauropoda
Quarry 1
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Morosaurus laticollis (h) nomen dubium (now ApatosaurusApatosaurusApatosaurus , also known by the popular but scientifically deprecated synonym Brontosaurus, is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived from about 154 to 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period . It was one of the largest land animals that ever existed, with an average length of and a...
sp.)
- Morosaurus laticollis (h) nomen dubium (now Apatosaurus
- Theropod
- Laelaps trihedrodon (h) nomen dubium (now Allosaurus)
- Sauropoda
Quarry 2
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Camarasaurus leptodirus (h) nomen dubium (now Camarasaurus supremus)
- Theropoda
- Epanterias amplexus (h) nomen dubium (now Allosaurus?)
- Sauropoda
- Ornithischia
- Stegosauria
- Hypsirophus discurus
Quarry 3
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- AmphicoeliasAmphicoeliasAmphicoelias is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that includes what may be the largest dinosaur ever discovered, A. fragillimus. Based on surviving descriptions of a single fossil bone, A. fragillimus may have been the longest known vertebrate at in length, and may have had a mass of up...
fragillimus (h)
- Amphicoelias
- Sauropoda
Quarry 4
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Amphicoelias fragillimus?
- Sauropoda
- Ornithischia
- Ornithopoda
- Symphyrophus musculosus (h) nomen dubium (now Goniopholis?)
- Ornithopoda
Quarry 5 (=Denver Museum of Natural History Camarasaurus)
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- CamarasaurusCamarasaurusCamarasaurus meaning 'chambered lizard', referring to the hollow chambers in its vertebrae was a genus of quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs. It was the most common of the giant sauropods to be found in North America...
supremus
- Camarasaurus
- Sauropoda
Quarry 6
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Camarasaurus supremus
- Sauropoda
Quarry 7
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Amphicoelias sp.
- Camarasaurus supremus
- Sauropoda
Quarry 8 (CS 2; The Fort)
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Camarasaurus supremus
- Sauropoda
Quarry 9
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda?
Quarry 10
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda?
Quarry 11
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda?
Quarry 12
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Amphicoelias altus (h)
- Sauropoda
Quarry 13
Dinosauria indeterminant
Quarry 14
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Amphicoelias latus nomen dubium (now Camarasaurus supremus)
- Sauropoda
Quarry 15 (Oil Tract)
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Amphiceolias latus (h) (now Camarasaurus sp.)
- Sauropoda
The following cannot be assigned to specific quarries
Reptilia
- Testudines
- Amphichelydia
- Glyptops plicatulus
- Amphichelydia
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Caulodon diversidens (h) nomen dubium (now Camarasaurus sp.)
- Sauropoda
- Ornithischia
- Ornithopoda?
- Tichosteus lucasanus (h) nomen dubium (ornithopod?)
- Tichosteus aequifacies (h) nomen dubium (Glyptops?)
- Brachyrophus altarkansanus (h) nomen dubium (now CamptosaurusCamptosaurusCamptosaurus is a genus of plant-eating, beaked ornithischian dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic period of western North America. The name means 'flexible lizard', ....
sp.)
- Stegosauria
- Hypsirophus seeleyanus (h)
- Ornithopoda?
Denver Museum of Natural History
Deweese Quarry (DMNH)Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Diplodocus sp.
- Sauropoda
Egg Gulch
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Theropoda
- Prismatoolithus coloradensis (eggs)
- Theropoda
- Ornithischia
- Ornithopoda
- DryosaurusDryosaurusDryosaurus is a genus of an ornithopod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic period. It was an iguanodont . Fossils have been found in the western United States, and were first discovered in the late 19th century...
? sp.
- Dryosaurus
- Ornithopoda
Kessler's Quarry
Reptilia
- Testudines
- Amphichelydia
- Glyptops plicatus
- Amphichelydia
- Crocodilia
- Mesosuchia
- GoniopholisGoniopholisGoniopholis is an extinct genus of crocodyliform that lived in North America, Europe and Asia during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Being semi-aquatic it is very similar to modern crocodiles...
sp.
- Goniopholis
- Mesosuchia
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Theropoda
- TorvosaurusTorvosaurusTorvosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period...
sp.
- Torvosaurus
- Theropoda
- Ornithischia
- Ornithopoda
- genus and species indeterminant
- Stegosauria
- Stegosaurus stenops
- Ornithopoda
|
Denver Museum of Natural History - continued
Lindsey QuarryAmphibia
- Anura
Reptilia
- Testudines
- Amphichelydia
- Glyptops plicatus
- Amphichelydia
- Rhynchocephalia
-
- OpisthiasOpisthiasOpisthias is a Late Jurassic genus of sphenodont reptile from the Morrison Formation of western North America, present in stratigraphic zones 2 and 4-6.-See also:* Prehistoric reptile* Paleobiota of the Morrison Formation...
rarus
- Opisthias
-
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Camarasaurus grandis
- Theropoda
- Allosaurus fragilis
- Sauropoda
- Ornithischia
- Ornithopoda
- genus and species indeterminant
- Ornithopoda
Mammalia
- Multituberculata
- genus and species indeterminant
Meyer Site 1
Reptilia
- Crocodilia
- Mesosuchia
- Goniopholis sp.
- Mesosuchia
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- genus and species indeterminant
- Theropoda
- Allosaurus sp.
- Sauropoda
Meyer Site 2
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Theropoda
- Torvosaurus cf. T. tanneri
- Theropoda
Meyer Site 3
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Diplodocus sp.
- Sauropoda
Not-A-Haplocanthosaurus Quarry
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Diplodocidae indeterminant
- Theropoda
- genus and species unknown
- Sauropoda
Small's Quarry
Osteichthyes
- Actinopterygii
- genus and species indeterminant
- Sarcopterygii
- Dipnoi
- Ceratodus guentheri
- Dipnoi
Reptilia
- Testudines
- Amphichelydia
- DinochelysDinochelysDinochelys is an extinct genus of paracryptodiran turtle from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation....
whitei - Glyptops plicatus
- Dinochelys
- Amphichelydia
- Squamata
- ?Sauria indeterminant
- Lacertilia
- Pterosauria
-
- KepodactylusKepodactylusKepodactylus is an extinct genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, USA....
grandis (h)
- Kepodactylus
-
- Crocodylia
- Mesosuchia
- Goniopholis sp.
- Mesosuchia
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Apatosaurus excelsus
- Theropoda
- ElaphrosaurusElaphrosaurusElaphrosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic of Tanzania. Elaphrosaurus was probably a ceratosaur about 6 meters long. Suggestions that it is a late surviving coelophysoid have been entertained but are generally dismissed. It was first...
sp. - genus and species indeterminant
- Elaphrosaurus
- Sauropoda
- Ornithiscia
- Ornithopoda
- Dryosaurus altus
- genus and species indeterminant
- Stegosauria
- Stegosaurus stenops
- Ankylosauria
- ?MymoorapeltaMymoorapeltaMymoorapelta is an ankylosaur from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of western Colorado. The taxon is known from portions of a disarticulated skull, parts of three different skeletons and other postcranial remains...
sp.
- ?Mymoorapelta
- Ornithopoda
Mammalia
- Docodonta
- Docodontidae
- DocodonDocodonDocodon was an omnivorous mammal from the middle to upper Jurassic Period that lived in Europe and North America approximately 175.6 to 144 million years ago. Docodon likely inhabited woodland and stayed in trees out of the reach of predators...
sp.
- Docodon
- Docodontidae
- Dryolestidae
- new genus and species
Valley of Death Locality
Reptilia
- Testudines
- Amphichelydia
- Glyptops plicatulus
- Amphichelydia
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Diplodocus sp.
- Sauropoda
- Ornithischia
- Ornithopoda
-
- Othnielosaurus consor
-
- Ornithopoda
Marsh Quarries
Jennings and Johnson LocalityReptilia
- Crocodilia
- HallopusHallopusHallopus was a prehistoric reptile, classified by O. C. Marsh in 1881 as a dinosaur. In fact it was probably a crocodilian or possibly a more primitive crurotarsan, and may be closely related to Junggarsuchus ....
victor
- Hallopus
Felch Quarry 1
Osteichthyes
- Sarcopterygii
- Dipnoi
- CeratodusCeratodusCeratodus was a wide-ranging genus of extinct sarcopterygiian lungfish. Fossil evidence dates back to the Middle Triassic 228 million years ago. A wide range of fossil species from different time periods have been found around the world in places such as the United States, Argentina, England,...
guentheri
- Ceratodus
- Dipnoi
Reptilia
- Testudines
- Amphichelydia
- DinochelysDinochelysDinochelys is an extinct genus of paracryptodiran turtle from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation....
whitei - Glyptops plicatulus' '
- Dinochelys
- Amphichelydia
- Crocodylia
- Mesosuchia
- Eutretauranosuchus sp.
- Goniophotis felchi (h)
- Mesosuchia
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Apatosaurus sp.
- BrachiosaurusBrachiosaurusBrachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic Morrison Formation of North America. It was first described by Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Grand River Canyon of western Colorado, in the United States. Riggs named the dinosaur Brachiosaurus altithorax,...
sp. - Diplodocus longus (h)
- Haplocanthosaurus priscus (h)
- Haplocanthosaurus utterbacki (h) nomen dubium (now H. priscus)
- Theropoda
- Allosaurus fragilis (h)
- Ceratosaurus nasicornis (h)
- CoelurusCoelurusCoelurus is a genus of coelurosaur dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period . The name means "hollow tail", referring to its hollow tail vertebrae...
agilis - Elaphrosaurus sp.
- Labrosaurus ferox (h) nomen dubium (now Allosaurus fragilis)
- Sauropoda
- Ornithischia
- Ornithopoda
- Dryosaurus altus
- OthnieliaOthnieliaOthnielia is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur, named after its original describer, Professor Othniel Charles Marsh, an American paleontologist of the 19th century...
rex and now Othnielosaurus consor
- Stegosauria
- Stegosaurus stenops (h)
- Stegosaurus armatus
- Ornithopoda
Felch Quarry 2
Dinosauria
- Saurischia
- Sauropoda
- Diplodocus longus
- Theropoda
- genus and species indeterminant
- Sauropoda
- Ornithischia
- Ornithopoda
- LaosaurusLaosaurusLaosaurus is a genus of hypsilophodont dinosaur. The type species is Laosaurus celer, first described by O.C. Marsh in 1878 from remains from the Oxfordian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming. The validity of this genus is doubtful because it is based on fragmentary fossils...
sp.
- Laosaurus
- Ornithopoda
Lucas's Site
Reptilia
- Crocodylia
- Mesosuchia
- Goniopholis lucasii
- Mesosuchia
Dinosauria
- Ornithischia
- Ornithopoda
- NanosaurusNanosaurusNanosaurus is the name given to a genus of dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. Described by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877, it is a poorly-known ornithischian of uncertain affinities. Its fossils are known from the Morrison Formation of Colorado and possibly Wyoming...
agilis(h)
- Nanosaurus
- Ornithopoda
|}
External links
- Garden Park Fossil Area - Bureau of Land ManagementBureau of Land ManagementThe Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...