Garden Park, Colorado

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 10 km (6.2 mi) 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 discurus

Quarry 3

Dinosauria

Saurischia

Sauropoda

Amphicoelias fragillimus (h) (now Maraapunisaurus)

Quarry 4

Dinosauria

Saurischia

Sauropoda

: Symphyrophus musculosus (h) nomen dubium

Quarry 5 (=Denver Museum of Natural History Camarasaurus)

Dinosauria

Saurischia

Sauropoda

Camarasaurus supremus

Quarry 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 indeterminate

Quarry 14

Dinosauria

Saurischia

Sauropoda

Camarasaurus supremus

Quarry 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 indeterminate

Egg Gulch

Dinosauria

Saurischia

Theropoda

Prismatoolithus coloradensis (eggs)

Ornithischia

Ornithopoda

Dryosauridae indeterminate

Kessler's Quarry

Reptilia

Testudines

Amphichelydia

Glyptops plicatus

Crocodilia

Mesoeucrocodylia

Goniopholididae indeterminate

Dinosauria

Saurischia

Theropoda

Torvosaurus sp.

Ornithischia

Ornithopoda

genus and species indeterminate

Stegosauria

Stegosaurus stenops

Lindsey 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 indeterminate

Not-A-Haplocanthosaurus Quarry

Dinosauria

Saurischia

Sauropoda

Diplodocidae indeterminate

Theropoda

genus and species indeterminate

Small'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 species

Valley 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 victor

Felch 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 longus

Lucas's Site

Reptilia

Crocodylia

Mesoeucrocodylia

Amphicotylus lucasii

Dinosauria

Ornithischia

Ornithopoda

Nanosaurus agilis (h)

References

^ 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.
^ Schuchert, C., and LeVene, C.M. 1940. O.C.Marsh, Pioneer in Paleontology. Yale University Press, New Haven.
^ Shur, E. 1974. The Fossil Feud. Exposition Press, NY. 340p.
^ Ostrom, J,H., and McIntosh, J.S. 1966. Marsh's Dinosaurs: The Collections from Como Bluff. Yale University Press, New Haven.
^ Jaffe, M. 2000. The Gilded Dinosaur. Crown Publ., New York.
^ McCarren, Mark J. The Scientific Contributions of Othniel Charles Marsh, pp 1, 8, 20, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. ISBN 0-912532-32-7.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ 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.