File: FossilBonesMultiple.jpg

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Partial skeleton of a young hadrosaur (about 25 feet long), exhibited at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, shown in a series of images. Images are not stitched owning to an inconsistent viewpoint, with photos taken while walking along the display.

Image by User:Leonard G.

Placard text (PD-US Government):

A Young Hadrosaur

These are the actual bones of a dinosaur excavated on the Monument in 2000 and 2001. Displayed here are most of the tail bones, the left pelvis, and portions of the left leg. 72 million years ago, the living animal was a 25-foot-long adolescent similar in shape to the Parasurolophus in the courtyard, but without the tube-like crest.

Preservation of this animal is among the best known anywhere. The bones and delicate tendons are still in their connected positions. Amazingly, impressions of the skin were found still attached to the skeleton. Site evidence indicates that the complete animal was fossilized, but much of its body was lost through erosion and illegal collection. Specimens like these are extraordinary sources of information abount these magnificent giants.

Paleontologists continue to make such discoveries in the Monument, assuring iits place of prominence in our quest to understand the animals and events of the Late Cretaceous.