Morrison Formation

But then the cons of not having skin that reflects the sun is that it's really hot and a lot of dinosaurs died of heat exhaustion, didn't they? Getting too warm.

Yes, actually we do have many bone beds where, especially in the Morrison Formation, in the late Jurassic, with dinosaurs like Apatosaurus, Brontosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, the one with the phagomyser, that during severe droughts, the dinosaurs would go to the watering holes to get the last of the water and they would get stuck in the mud.

I see.

And then they can't, because they're so big and it's muddy, they try to pull themselves out and then they keep getting trapped and then they die of exhaustion.

Mm-hmm.

The most famous of this group is probably Diplodocus, which is an extraordinarily famous and well-studied, uh, large sauropod, which are known very abundantly from the Morrison Formation, which is latest Jurassic, uh, rocks that are found in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming across, uh, our country of the United States, and that's where they have been most well-studied.

This research presents new diplodocid fossils from a similar formation, a similar late Jurassic formation in Spain, the Villar del Arzobispo Formation.

Same age as the Morrison Formation here in the US, also lots of dinosaurs, also lots of sauropods.

They are describing diplodocid or diplodocid remains.

Not the first ones from Europe.

Mm-hmm

... finding, partly because it expands the diversity of late Jurassic Iberian dinosaurs.

I really do hope so.

So, you know, when the Morrison Formation was found, which is, it's a dinosaur graveyard that goes right through the dead, like it's like right in the middle of the United States of America.

It's like thousands and thousands of miles long.

And it's just the, it's like the haven for dinosaur fossils.

And it really is a giant dinosaur graveyard.

It's where all of like them ended up.

But the interesting thing about the Morrison Formation is that it's all adult dinosaurs.

There are no baby dinosaurs in the whole thing.

Yeah, and in this occasion, we reckon the river dried up, right?

Yes, so clams need water, and the Morrison Formation, where Rebecca is doing her work, and where Dinosaur National Monument is, often has these really severe, severe droughts.

So we've got many, many famous dinosaurs from the areas surrounding Dinosaur National Monument.

Allosaurus, Degasaurus.

She then determined that it actually belonged to a stegosaur rather than a sauropod.

So this is a massive animal.

Yes, and it was reported from the Morrison Formation, which is the big band of Jurassic rock these fossils came from.

Exactly.

Foundation here.

Formation, Morrison Formation.

I think I don't know what I'm talking about.

How embarrassing for me.

Common.

There's Allosaurus fragilis.

Morrison formation.

Look at that.