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The Morrison-Golden Fossil Areas National Natural Landmark, Colorado, USA, including Dinosaur Ridge, is rich in geological and paleontological history, ranking historically as the premier location and type area for Late Jurassic dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Diplodocus. As the type area for the Morrison Formation, it famously became central in the “Bone Wars” underway in the 1870s. After a brief historical introduction at Stop 1, the trip will explore the ‘mid’-Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone (Stop 2), which yields the top-ranked dinosaur tracksite in the United States, with two type ichnospecies and the most accessible “nest scrape display trace” evidence of dinosaurian sexual display found anywhere. It also an important location for the study of microbial mat in association with dinosaur tracks, now photogrammetrically surveyed in detail. Dinosaur Ridge serves as the type area for the “Dinosaur Freeway” and the transgression of the Western Interior Seaway. Its diverse invertebrate traces have also been described in detail. After lunch at the Dinosaur Ridge Visitor’s Center exhibit (Stop 3), the trip will move a short distance to Golden to view the type localities for the first bird and crocodilian tracks ever reported from the Mesozoic (Stop 4). We will also visit the younger (Late Cretaceous) Laramie Formation, exposed in the Golden clay pits, cut by the Golden fault, and the source of historically famous paleofloras, the first known Ceratopsian tracks, and other type traces now developed as Triceratops Trail (Stop 5), constituting part of the well- documented Fossil Trace and School of Mines Geological Trail complex. The field excursion will involve easy walks and no strenuous climbs.

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