Bighorn Basin GeoScience Center

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Bighorn Basin Fossil Sites

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Apatasaurus tail section

Big Al Two

Dinosaur track

Baby Toni

Sarah

CONTACT

Cliff Manuel, Chairman

Bighorn Basin Geoscience Center, Inc.

537 Greybull Avenue

Greybull, Wyoming 82426

Phone: 307.765.2286

Cell: 406.672.1462

e-mail: cliff@bbgeoscience.org

The Bighorn Basin of Wyoming contains extensively documented fossil-bearing deposits that date from 550 million years ago (Cambrian Period) to the present. These include world famous outcrops that contain dinosaur bones and tracksites, ancient marine reptiles, and primitive mammal fossils. These deposits are located on privately held land as well as on public land, both state and federal.

Basin Sites

Major Dinosaur Fossil Sites in the Bighorn Basin

Howe Dinosaur Quarry

Brown at quarry One of the best known fossil sites in the basin is the Howe Dinosaur Quarry near Shell, Wyoming. First excavated in 1934 by the famous paleontologist, Barnum Brown, of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, this became a world renowned site for its large assemblage of dinosaur bones (over 4,000 fossilized bones), mostly sauropods, in a single area. Sinclair Oil Company financed this expedition and it was documented in major news outlets and scientific publications.

The site lay dormant for nearly 60 years until Swiss paleontologist H. J. (Kiby) Siber, owner of the Saurier Museum Aathal in Switzerland, leased the "bone rights" from the owners and reopened the site. Over the ensuing fifteen years or so, Kirby discovered and collected several remarkable dinosaur specimens, many virtually complete, including;

kirby1 'Big Al Two', the most complete Allosaurus specimen ever discovered

'Baby Toni', the only known juvenile sauropod (six months old)

'Victoria', Stegosaurus

'Moritz', Stegosaurus

'Barbara', Othnielia

'Piccolo', Othnielia

'Max', Apatosaurus

'ET', Camarasaurus

'Paula', Camarasaurus

'HQ1', Diplodocus, plus six other Diplodocus specimens

Siber’s team also discovered Big Al, the subject of the BBC/Discovery video entitled “Allosaur”. However, he had inadvertently strayed onto public land, instead of the private site, and this find was eventually collected by a team from the Museum of the Rockies and the University of Wyoming. See Kirby's Saurier Museum Aathal website for additional data.

Red Canyon Ranch Dinosaur Quarry

Presentation1 Paleontologist Bob Simon, working at the Red Canyon Ranch near Shell, Wyoming collected a virtually complete articulated Stegosaurus skeleton in 2004 (see image), with the assistance of dinosaur hunter Kirby Siber and his crew. Named “Sarah” after the daughter of the owners of Red Canyon Ranch, the first public display of the skeleton reconstruction of Sarah was at the Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show in February, 2008. In 2007, Bob again struck paydirt, uncovering a virtually complete articulated Camarasaurus, which has now been excavated and resides in a museum in Japan. The Red Canyon Ranch Dinosaur Quarry is situated on private land near Shell.

Dana Dinosaur Quarry

Another private site, the Dana Dinosaur Quarry near Ten Sleep, Wyoming is rapidly becoming a major dinosaur quarry. Over a dozen individual skeletons have so far been discovered, representing a variety of species, including predator and prey, both large and small, including "Einstein", a huge Apatosaurus which was recently displayed in the Abu Dhabi airport.

Marine Reptiles

Paleontologists from the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, led by Dr. Michael Brett-Surman, collected marine reptile specimens from a Bighorn Basin site, which was discovered in 1994 by Row Manuel. A reproduction of one of the Ichthyosaur specimens, “Ikky”, is currently on display in the Bighorn Basin Geoscience Center in Greybull, Wyoming. Also, Dr. Robin O'Keefe, a biology professor at Marshall University, recently collected a previously unknown species of plesiosaur, Tatenectes laramiensis, near Greybull - click on NEWS to read the story.

Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite

rgdt The Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite near Shell, Wyoming is the largest dinosaur tracksite in Wyoming, and one of two Middle Jurassic age tracksites known in the world. The tracksite contains literally thousands of rare Middle Jurassic age dinosaur tracks embedded in oolitic limestone. Located on public land near Shell, Wyoming, this site covers 40 acres set-aside by the USDI-Bureau of Land Management. See Dinosaur Tracksites for more information.

Mammal Fossil Sites

The middle of the Bighorn Basin is dotted with over 1,ooo scientifically documented fossil collection sites. The first complete specimens of Eohippus, the early dawn horse, and Coryphodon, the first large browsing animal, were discovered and collected in this area. And, the Natural Trap Cave in the Big Horns essentially contains the entire record of the Pleistocene up until 10,000, 12,000 years ago.

(except for images and text as noted)

Last updated: December 10, 2011

Bighorn Basin GeoScience Center ~ 537 Greybull Avenue ~ Greybull, Wyoming 82426

Web site maintenance by: Cliff Manuel