Bones on Top of Bones
A Jurassic Jigsaw Puzzle

Inside the visitor center, a replica mount of a teenage Allosaurus dominates conversations.   Replica skulls of a camarasaur, a diplodocus, and a stegosaur hang from the walls like trophies of the mighty hunter, Allosaurus.  Real bones to touch and heft abound.  From one wall hangs a map, showing locations of the over 60 museums around the world that boast Cleveland-Lloyd material.  A map showing the recorded locations of thousands of bones taken from the deposit decorate another wall.  Comparing that map with the view out the window brings home just how small the area covered by the bone bed actually is.  Two sheds are currently set up over the bone bed to protect the bones from thieves, vandals, and the weather.

One of the buildings is open, with a catwalk inside to allow for closer viewing of bones still in the ground and partially exposed.  Some bones are found together as they would have been in life, but most are scattered and jumbled.  A layer about a yard thick contains more Jurassic dinosaur bones per square yard than has been found anywhere else in the whole world!  And nobody knows why...

Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry is one of the world's foremost fossil resources.  As the world's only known dinosaur predator trap, it preserves the most concentrated collection of Jurassic dinosaur bones on earth.  Bones of 74 individual dinosaurs have been excavated, of which 66% belong to the meat eater Allosaurus.  In total, more than 12,000 bones have been excavated.  Yet to be uncovered are several thousand more bones.  Display skeletons from this quarry are on exhibit in more than 65 museums throughout the world.

Remnants of prehistoric stream channels exist in the hills around the site.   Dinosaur tracks of Stegosaurs, Camarasaurs, Apatosaurs, Diplodocus, Camptosaurs, Allosaurs and a small predator where recently found along these stream channels.

The Visitor Center features a mounted Allosaur skeleton and three wall mounted dinosaurs.  Information about the history of the quarry and the San Rafael Swell is also available.  The "quarry" housed in two buildings allows visitors to view the bone deposits.  On select days paleontologists and volunteers can be seen excavating bones or preparing them for study.