Multimedia presentation by Don Hopey and Lizabeth Gray
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

These Jurassic treasures in North America's most famous dinosaur bed are not, as one local spins it, "everywhere, like dandelions." But since at least the 1870s, prospectors and paleontologists have been famously finding them wherever the 150-million-year-old sediments and sandstones of the Morrison Formation outcrop on the surface in Wyoming, Montana and nine other western states.

Just such an outcrop is the centerpiece of the University of Pittsburgh's new 4,700 acre Allen L. Cook Spring Creek Preserve. But unlike other known dinosaur digs and hot spots in northern and central Wyoming and along nearby Como Bluff, the preserve's Morrison has never been fully explored and prospected.

Until now.

Paleontologists, instructors and students enrolled in Pitt's Honors College summer field course took the first dusty steps earlier this month to determine just what Pitt had bought in December of 2005 from rancher Allen Cook, who had no previous connection to Pitt, for the bargain basement price of $1 million.

Related coverage:
Dinosaurs are gone, but their bones are all about

Multimedia Index

First published on June 22, 2007 at 9:09 am

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This presentation was produced by Peter Diana.
Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com. Lizabeth Gray can be reached at lgray@post-gazette.com.