Garden Park, Colorado Explained

Garden Park is a paleontological site in Fremont County, Colorado, known for its Jurassic dinosaurs and the role the specimens played in the infamous Bone Wars of the late 19th century. Located 10km (10miles) north of Cañon City, the name originates from the area providing vegetables to the miners at nearby Cripple Creek in the 19th century. Garden Park proper is a triangular valley surrounded by cliffs on the southeast and southwest and by mountains to the north; however, the name is also refers to the dinosaur sites on top and along the cliffs. The dinosaur sites now form the Garden Park Paleontological Resource Area, which is overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.

Geology

Garden Park was formed by erosion of sedimentary rocks that have been distorted by uplift of the Rocky Mountains. The region is bisected by Four Mile Creek (also called Oil Creek), which has carved a canyon through the Mesozoic and Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. One of these Mesozoic strata is the Morrison Formation, which is exposed within the canyon. However, because the formation contains high amounts of swelling clays, large faulted blocks or slump-blocks of the formation are slowly moving towards the creek. The result is to make it difficult to correlate the various dinosaur quarries because exposures are limited and not continuous.

The formation in Garden Park can be divided informally into a lower and upper unit.^[1] The lower unit is composed primarily green and gray mudstones, with numerous lenticular, white to tan to gray sandstones. The upper is composed mostly of red mudstone, with lesser amounts of yellowish, often tabular sandstone. These two units probably correspond to the Tidwell, Saltwash and Brushy Basin members of the Morrison Formation on the Colorado Plateau.

Dinosaurs

The discovery of dinosaurs in the Garden Park area has been presented numerous times by Schuchert and LeVene,^[2] Shur,^[3] Ostrom and McIntosh,^[4] and Jaffe.^[5] Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope both produced major finds here.^[6] The lesser known post-Marsh and Cope collecting of dinosaurs has been presented by Monaco.^[7] She recounts the expeditions by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in the early 20th century, the Denver Museum of Natural History in the 1930 and 1990s, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in the mid-1950s.

Dinosaurs from Garden Park on display include Allosaurus fragilis, Diplodocus longus, Ceratosaurus nasicornis, and Stegosaurus stenops at the National Museum of Natural History, Haplocanthosaurus delfsi at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Othnielosaurus consors (then called Othnielia rex), Stegosaurus stenops and a clutch of Preprismatoolithus coloradensis eggs at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Major vertebrate quarries

references ^{[8] [9]} (h) = holotype

Cleveland Museum of Natural History Quarry Reptilia Testudines Amphichelydia Glyptops ornatus Crocodilia Mesosuchia Eutretauranosuchus delfsi Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Haplocanthosaurus delfsi Cope's Quarries CS 1 (Cope's Nipple = Saurian Hill) Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Camarasaurus supremus (h) Quarry 1 Dinosauria Saurischia Theropoda Quarry 2 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Camarasaurus supremus Theropoda Epanterias amplexus (h) nomen dubium (now Allosaurus) Ornithischia Stegosauria Hypsirophus discurusQuarry 3 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Amphicoelias fragillimus (h) (now Maraapunisaurus) Quarry 4 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Symphyrophus musculosus (h) nomen dubiumQuarry 5 (=Denver Museum of Natural History Camarasaurus) Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Camarasaurus supremusQuarry 6 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Camarasaurus supremus Quarry 7 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Amphicoelias sp. Camarasaurus supremus Quarry 8 (CS 2; The Fort) Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Camarasaurus supremus Quarry 9 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda? Quarry 10 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda? Quarry 11 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda? Quarry 12 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Amphicoelias altus (h)Quarry 13 Dinosauria indeterminateQuarry 14 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Camarasaurus supremusQuarry 15 (Oil Tract) Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Amphicoelias latus (h) (now Camarasaurus grandis)The following cannot be assigned to specific quarries Reptilia Testudines Amphichelydia Glyptops plicatulus Incertae sedis Tichosteus lucasanus (h) nomen dubium Tichosteus aequifacies (h) nomen dubium Brachyrophus altarkansanus (h) nomen dubium Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Caulodon diversidens (h) nomen dubium Ornithischia Stegosauria Hypsirophus seeleyanus (h) Denver Museum of Natural History Deweese Quarry (DMNH) Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Diplodocinae indeterminateEgg Gulch Dinosauria Saurischia Theropoda Prismatoolithus coloradensis (eggs) Ornithischia Ornithopoda Dryosauridae indeterminateKessler's Quarry Reptilia Testudines Amphichelydia Glyptops plicatus Crocodilia Mesoeucrocodylia Goniopholididae indeterminate Dinosauria Saurischia Theropoda Torvosaurus sp. Ornithischia Ornithopoda genus and species indeterminate Stegosauria Stegosaurus stenopsLindsey Quarry Amphibia Anura Reptilia Testudines Amphichelydia Glyptops plicatus Rhynchocephalia Opisthias rarus Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Camarasaurus grandis Theropoda Allosaurus fragilis Ornithischia Ornithopoda genus and species indeterminate Mammalia Multituberculata genus and species indeterminate Meyer Site 1 Reptilia Crocodilia Mesosuchia Goniopholididae indeterminate Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda genus and species indeterminate Theropoda Allosaurus sp.Meyer Site 2 Dinosauria Saurischia Theropoda Torvosaurus cf. T. tanneri Meyer Site 3 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Diplodocinae indeterminateNot-A-Haplocanthosaurus Quarry Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Diplodocidae indeterminate Theropoda genus and species indeterminateSmall's Quarry Osteichthyes Actinopterygii genus and species indeterminate Sarcopterygii Dipnoi Ceratodus guentheri Reptilia Testudines Amphichelydia Dinochelys whitei Glyptops plicatus Squamata ?Sauria indeterminate Lacertilia Pterosauria Kepodactylus grandis (h) Crocodylia Mesosuchia Goniopholididae indeterminate Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Apatosaurinae indeterminate Theropoda Ceratosauria indeterminate genus and species indeterminate Ornithiscia Ornithopoda Dryosaurus altus Stegosauria Stegosaurus stenops Ankylosauria ?Mymoorapelta sp. Mammalia Docodonta Docodontidae Docodon apoxys Dryolestidae new genus and speciesValley of Death Locality Reptilia Testudines Amphichelydia Glyptops plicatulus Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Diplodocinae indeterminate Ornithischia Neornithischia genus and species indeterminate Marsh Quarries Jennings and Johnson Locality Reptilia Crocodilia Hallopus victorFelch Quarry 1 Osteichthyes Sarcopterygii Dipnoi Ceratodus guentheri Reptilia Testudines Amphichelydia Dinochelys whitei Glyptops plicatulus Crocodylia Mesosuchia Eutretauranosuchus sp. Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Brachiosaurus sp. Brontosaurus yahnahpin Diplodocus longus (h) Haplocanthosaurus priscus (h) Haplocanthosaurus utterbacki (h) (=H. priscus) Theropoda Allosaurus fragilis (h) Ceratosaurus nasicornis (h) Coelurus fragilis Ceratosauria indeterminate Labrosaurus ferox (h) (now Allosaurus fragilis) Ornithischia Ornithopoda Dryosaurus altus Othnielia rex (h) Stegosauria Stegosaurus stenops (h)Felch Quarry 2 Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropoda Diplodocus longusLucas's Site Reptilia Crocodylia Mesoeucrocodylia Amphicotylus lucasii Dinosauria Ornithischia Ornithopoda Nanosaurus agilis (h)

External links

• Garden Park Fossil Area - Bureau of Land Management
• Hands On The Land

38.5733°N -105.2253°W

Notes and References

1. Carpenter, K. 1998. Vertebrate biostratigraphy of the Morrison Formation near Cañon City, Colorado. In Carpenter, K., Chure, D. and Kirkland, J.I. (eds.) The Morrison Formation: An Interdisciplinary Study. Modern Geology 23:407-426.
2. Schuchert, C., and LeVene, C.M. 1940. O.C.Marsh, Pioneer in Paleontology. Yale University Press, New Haven.
3. Shur, E. 1974. The Fossil Feud. Exposition Press, NY. 340p.
4. Ostrom, J,H., and McIntosh, J.S. 1966. Marsh's Dinosaurs: The Collections from Como Bluff. Yale University Press, New Haven.
5. Jaffe, M. 2000. The Gilded Dinosaur. Crown Publ., New York.
6. McCarren, Mark J. The Scientific Contributions of Othniel Charles Marsh, pp 1, 8, 20, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. .
7. Monaco, P.E. 1998.A short history of dinosaur collecting in the Garden Park Fossil Area, Canon City, Colorado. In, Carpenter, K., Chure, D. and Kirkland, J.I. (eds.) The Morrison Formation: An Interdisciplinary Study. Modern Geology 23: 465-480.
8. Carpenter, K. 1998. Vertebrate biostratigraphy of the Morrison Formation near Cañon City, Colorado. In Carpenter, K., Chure, D. and Kirkland, J.I. (eds.) The Morrison Formation: An Interdisciplinary Study. Modern Geology 23:407-426.
9. McIntosh, J.S. 1998. New information about the Cope collection of sauropods from Garden Park, Colorado. In Carpenter, K., Chure, D. and Kirkland, J.I. (eds.) The Morrison Formation: An Interdisciplinary Study. Modern Geology 23:481-506.