Justin S. Tweet and Vincent L. Santucci (2018)
An inventory of non-avian dinosaurs from National Park Service areas.
in Lucas, S.G. and Sullivan, R.M., eds., 2018, Fossil Record 6. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 79: 703-730
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Dinosaurs have captured the interest and imagination of the general public, particularly children, around the world. Paleontological resource inventories within units of the National Park Service have revealed that body and trace fossils of non-avian dinosaurs have been documented in at least 21 National Park Service areas. In addition there are two historically associated occurrences, one equivocal occurrence, two NPS areas with dinosaur tracks in building stone, and one case where fossils have been found immediately outside of a monumentâs boundaries. To date, body fossils of nonavian dinosaurs are documented at 14 NPS areas, may also be present at another, and are historically associated with two other parks. Dinosaur trace fossils have been documented at 17 NPS areas and are visible in building stone at two parks. Most records of NPS dinosaur fossils come from park units on the Colorado Plateau, where body fossils have been found in Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous rocks at many locations, and trace fossils are widely distributed in Upper Triassic and Jurassic rocks. Two NPS units are particularly noted for their dinosaur fossils: Dinosaur National Monument (Upper Triassic through Lower Cretaceous) and Big Bend National Park (Upper Cretaceous). To date, fourteen dinosaur species have been named from fossils discovered in NPS areas, the most famous probably being the sauropod Apatosaurus louisae. Increasing interest in the paleontology of the parks over the past few decades has brought many of these body and trace fossils to light. Future paleontological field inventories and research will likely yield new dinosaur finds from NPS areas. Â