Saturday | April 11, 2025
Led by Paleontologist Julia McHugh
Journey 152 million years into the past, with this tour of the Mygatt-Moore Quarry, a gigantic dinosaur bonebed that has produced thousands of fossils over more than 30 years. This tour will highlight the history of the site, new discoveries, and even take you on a short walk along the Trail Through Time to discover the fossils of a Camarasaurus still embedded in the hard sandstones of an ancient river channel.
mygatt-moore Dinosaur Quarry
This is an excellent trip for those with an interest in fossil discovery, preparation, and paleontological forensics. The quarry site is an hour and fifteen minute drive from Green River in Fruita, CO.
See below for important trip information.
-
Participants must drive their own vehicles.
The quarry is an hour and 15 minute drive from the museum, mostly on I-70 between Green River, UT, and Fruita, CO. Any car can make the trip.
-
A full tank of gas.
Lunch, water, sturdy shoes, binoculars, camera, and snacks.
-
Dr. Julia McHugh is the Curator of Paleontology of the Museums of Western Colorado, and an instructor in the geosciences program at Colorado Mesa University. Dr. McHugh is an expert in Morrison Formation paleontology, taphonomy, and amphibian evolution. Her recent collaborative research has included discoveries on tooth replacement mechanisms in sauropods like Apatosaurus, cannibalism in the theropod Allosaurus, and evidence for decay and decomposition ecologies at the Mygatt-Moore Quarry. The recent special exhibition at Dinosaur Journey in Fruita (part of the Museums of Western Colorado), Dinosaurs Macabre, is based on these recent research projects. She has worked on excavations in Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Oklahoma. She has a B.A. in Geology from Hanover College, a M.S. in Geosciences from Idaho State University, and a Ph.D. in Geoscience from The University of Iowa.
The Mygatt-Moore Quarry during excavations in the 1990s. Photo by François Gohier, courtesy of Museums of Western Colorado.