Buckrail has a post about a massive dinosaur dig in north-central Wyoming. Called "Mission Jurassic", the effort has become a collaboration between paleontologists across the US and the UK. The site itself is huge and may hold hundreds of dinosaurs, including four mighty sauropods that have already been identified.
Geologists have long known about the dinosaur-rich Morrison Formation. Stretching from New Mexico to Montana, the sedimentary rocks, stones, and conglomerates hide thousands of dinosaur fossils dating from the Kimmeridgian and early Tithonian ages some 148 million to 155 million years old ago.
What has scientists especially excited lately is the discovery of a particularly prolific patch along the Morrison Formation dubbed “Jurassic Mile.” The exact location of the excavation is kept highly confidential for fear of fossil thieves. Reporters headed to the area to cover a news story must agree to switch off geotagging on their phones and avoid taking photographs that feature the horizon.
The $27.5 million project has taken on the name “Mission Jurassic.” The site is a treasure trove of Jurassic fossil bones, trackways, and preserved plant life from millions of years ago that will undoubtedly lead to never-before-told stories about the Jurassic Period.
So far, Mission Jurassic has definitively identified at least four mighty sauropods. There are some meat-eating allosaurs, too, waiting to be transported off-site. The fossil records in this prolific square mile of treasure trove could keep a thousand paleontologists happy for a thousand years, according to one such scientist Phil Manning.
