Editing Morrison Formation (section)

=== Sites and quarries ===
[[File:Dinosaur National Monument-inside the Dinosaur Quarry building.jpeg|thumb|right|250px|Workers inside the Dinosaur Quarry building, at the [[Dinosaur National Monument]]]]
Locations where significant Morrison Formation fossil discoveries have been made include:

==== Colorado ====
[[File:FruitaPaleo.JPG|thumb|250px|Fruita Paleontological Resource Area. One of the sites is denoted by the arrow.]]
* [[Garden Park, Colorado]]: One of the three major sites excavated by the paleontologists [[Othniel Charles Marsh]] and [[Edward Drinker Cope]] during the Bone Wars in 1877, though most of the specimens were too incomplete to classify (''nomina dubia'') during the 1877-78 field seasons. The first nearly complete skeletons of ''[[Stegosaurus]], [[Ceratosaurus]],'' and ''[[Allosaurus]]'' were discovered at the site, including the type specimens of the former two and the proposed neotype of ''Allosaurus fragilis,'' in the 1883-1886 Yale field seasons.<ref>Evanoff, E., & Carpenter, K. (1998). [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kenneth-Carpenter-2/publication/40662156_History_sedimentology_and_taphonomy_of_Felch_Quarry_1_and_associated_sandbodies_Morrison_Formation_Garden_Park_Colorado/links/5c61c77a45851582c3e16a11/History-sedimentology-and-taphonomy-of-Felch-Quarry-1-and-associated-sandbodies-Morrison-Formation-Garden-Park-Colorado.pdf History, sedimentology, and taphonomy of felch quarry 1 and associated sandbodies, Morrison Formation, Garden Park, Colorado.] ''Modern Geology'', ''22'', 423-170.</ref>  In 1992, a specimen of ''Stegosaurus stenops'' was discovered with its [[Armour (zoology)|armor]] still in place, which confirmed that the dinosaur had two rows of plates on its back.
* [[Dry Mesa Quarry]], Colorado: A wide variety of fauna, as well as the most diverse set of dinosaurs from any Morrison Formation quarry. The first dig was in 1972, by researchers from [[Brigham Young University]]. Unique specimens include the longest dinosaur known, ''[[Supersaurus]]'', the [[wikt:chimera|chimeric]] ''[[Ultrasauros]]'', and the largest [[carnivore]] on the continent, ''[[Torvosaurus]]''.
* Fruita Paleontological Resource Area: Badlands sites located south of [[Fruita, Colorado|Fruita]], were actively worked by George Callison from California State University and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Numerous specimens of mammals, lizards, and crocodiles were found. Most recently, ''[[Fruitafossor windscheffelia]]'' and the new dinosaur ''[[Fruitadens]]'' were described from the area.
* [[Purgatoire River track site]], [[Otero County, Colorado|Otero County]].

==== Utah ====
* [[Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry]], Utah: First excavated by geologists from the University of Utah in the late 1920s. [[William Lee Stokes]] led an expedition from Princeton in 1939. During the Jurassic, the quarry was likely an ephemeral pond, where dinosaurs gathered and died due to severe drought.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gates |first1=Terry |title=The Late Jurassic Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry as a Drought-Induced Assemblage |url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/sepm/palaios/article-abstract/20/4/363/100047/The-Late-Jurassic-Cleveland-Lloyd-Dinosaur-Quarry |publisher=PALAIOS |access-date=19 June 2024}}</ref> Their bodies were reworked by seasonal flooding events, which also added other partial carcasses from elsewhere.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peterson |first1=Joseph E. |last2=Warnock |first2=Jonathan P. |last3=Eberhart |first3=Shawn L. |last4=Clawson |first4=Steven R. |last5=Noto |first5=Christopher R. |title=New data towards the development of a comprehensive taphonomic framework for the Late Jurassic Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, Central Utah |journal=PeerJ |pages=e3368 |doi=10.7717/peerj.3368 |date=2017|volume=5 |doi-access=free |pmid=28603668 |pmc=5463971 }}</ref> ''[[Allosaurus fragilis]]'' is by far the most common dinosaur at this site, making it a model organism for studies of paleobiology in basal theropods. The rare theropods ''[[Stokesosaurus]]'' and ''[[Marshosaurus]]'' specimens were also first discovered here.
* [[Dinosaur National Monument]], Utah: First excavated by Earl Douglas working for the [[Carnegie Museum of Natural History|Carnegie Museum]] in 1909 with the purpose of finding sauropods from the Morrison Formation for public display. Monument also has fossilized dinosaurs from the [[Cedar Mountain Formation]]. 
* [[Hanksville-Burpee Quarry]], [[Hanksville, Utah|Hanksville]]

==== Wyoming ====
* [[Bone Cabin Quarry]], Wyoming
* [[Como Bluff]], Wyoming: One of the most renowned fossil sites in North America. It was first worked by Cope and particularly Marsh in 1877 and has been the source of many different sauropods and non-dinosaur species. The [[Cloverly Formation]] from the Cretaceous and some [[Triassic]] strata are also exposed at this location.
* The [[Wyoming Dinosaur Center]], [[Thermopolis, Wyoming|Thermopolis]]
* [[Ten Sleep]], including Dana Quarry from where at least 12 sauropods and theropods are recovered.<ref>Saleiro, A., & Mateus O. (2017).  Upper Jurassic bonebeds around Ten Sleep, Wyoming, USA: overview and stratigraphy. Abstract book of the XV Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores en Paleontología/XV Encontro de Jovens Investigadores em Paleontologia, Lisboa, 428 pp.. 357-361.</ref>