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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIORBUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
Wyoming |
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| Cody Field Office | |||
Paleontology Many of the paleontology digs in the Cody Field Office area are called bone beds. Bone beds often represent the remains of several individual dinosaur carcasses, concentrated by river currents at gravel bars or river bends.
Below where Big Al was found is at least one other dinosaur, which will be excavated in the summer of 2004. This dinosaur may be a plant-eating sauropod, the Apatosaurus, and was not associated with Big Al's demise. Most ongoing excavations are uncovering sauropods. This makes sense since theropods like the Allosaurus were the predators and were outnumbered by the sauropods. It is analogous to today's populations of plant-eaters and predators. Many different species have been unearthed in the Cody area. They include: Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, and Pterosaurus. Quite often, theropod teeth have been found when exhuming sauropod bones. Although recent publicity emphasizes the Jurassic finds, Cretaceous dinosaurs are also being uncovered in the area. Additionally the younger Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits, also within the bounds of the Cody Field Office, produce mammal fossils known in scientific circles worldwide. Survey & Excavation PermitsThere are two types of permits that are issued to qualified vertebrate paleontologists.
Institutions holding excavation permits in the Cody area include: Georgia College & State University, Cincinnati Museum Center, Virginia Museum of Natural History, University of Chicago, Concordia College, University of the Pacific and Peabody Museum. Paleontological Resource Use Permits authorize collection of significant fossils from BLM public land. Significant fossils are defined as all vertebrate fossils and their tracks or traces, and some invertebrate or plant fossils identified as rare or important. |
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