Reconstructing Rivers: Fluvial Environments of Cretaceous Strata in Dinosaur National Monument, an REU Site

Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter MN

Investigators

Abstract

This project will provide students with an exceptional opportunity to contribute to a timely, important research problem in sedimentary geology. Eight undergraduate students, along with two student Teaching assistants and the PI, will conduct field and laboratory research to determine the sedimentary history of fossil-bearing Lower Cretaceious strata in Dinosaur National Monument, Utah and Colorado. Recent discovery of a new bone bed within Dinosaur National Mounument (DNM) has led paleontologists to recognize that large sauropods, previously thought to be restricted to Eurasia in mid-Cretaceious time, were still extant in North America. Sedimentologic analysis, especially facies interpretation to characterize ancient dinosaur habitats, is relatively undeveloped in the Cretaceous strata that contain the newly discovered sauropod skeletons. This research project will progressively develop students' research skills toward understanding and interpreting the sedimentology of the Cretaceious Cedar Mountain formation. The project combines field work in fluvial sedimentology with analog modeling of fluvial processes. The results of this project will be highly significant to North American paleontologists, and will thus provide student participants with an immediate sense of the relevance of their research. Throughout the program, the PI and visiting scientists will develop students' thinking about conducting research based on observation and interpretation, and the development of actualistic facies models.