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about fossils found in this

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TRILOBITES

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Allosaurus

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Stegosaurus

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Tail Spike

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Utahraptor

Claw

UtahraptorSkull

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SABER TOOTHED CAT

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OYSTERS

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Crinoid

Crinoid Stems

Horn Coral

Brachiopod

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HUNTINGTON MAMMOTH

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Tooth

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Trilobites are extinct water animals that existed 550 million to around 300 million years ago in the seas. They are related to

crabs and lobsters of today. There are many kinds of trilobites found all over the world. Trilobites were easily fossilized because as

they died, their bodies settled to the sea bottom where they were covered by layer

after layer of new soil. Back

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Of the bones taken out of Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, about three-quarters belong to the meat-eater

Allosaurus. This predator has sharp claws, strong jaws and sharp teeth. It had a massive tail, a bulky

body, and heavy bones. Its arms were short and had three-fingered hands with sharp claws that were up to 6 inches (15 cm) long. Allosaurus probably ate large, plant-eating dinosaurs, like Stegosaurus. Allosaurus was found during the late Jurassic Period about 150

million years ago.

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The STEGOSAURUS was a dinosaur from the late Jurassic period (about 200 million years ago). You can recognize it by the bony plates that run down the neck and back. The plates were made of bone which was not solid, but was filled with tube-like tunnels. It had a small head with a walnut-sized brain (the same as a kitten)! The bones of the Stegosaurus are found throughout the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry, but especially in "Stegosaurus Corner" where four skeletons were discovered. The Stegosaurus had four to eight spikes on the end of its tail.

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UTAHRAPTOR was discovered in 1991 by Dr. Jim Kirkland in a desert near Moab,

Utah. It lived in the early Cretaceous Period, about 125 million years ago. It was a meat-

eater and used its large, razor-sharp claws to cut into its prey. It was a lightly built, fast-

moving, bird-like dinosaur that walked on two legs. Evidence suggests that it was pack

hunter.

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The SABER-TOOTHED CAT fossil was found near Park City. It is an extinct ice age animal. It also had very strong jaw and neck muscles that let smilodon stab prey with its deadly teeth. It had a short, bobbed tail. It may have eaten thick-skinned prey like mammoth, rhinoceros, bison and other thick-skinned animals.

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The oysters lived in a shallow sea 190-160 million years ago. There are several

layers of limestone here made almost entirely of shells and shell pieces.

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West of Salt Lake in Tooele County, fossils of crinoids or sea lilies are found. Stalked crinoids, or "sea lilies",

lived attached to the bottom of warm shallow seas about 350 million years ago, and filtered food particles from

the currents flow past them. Crinoids, commonly known as sea lilies, are related to starfish and sea urchins.

Brachiopods, two-valved seashells, are marine animals that, upon first glance, look like clams. They are

actually quite different from clams and they are not closely related to the molluscs. Coral are also found

here.

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PETRIFIED WOOD and agate have been found by Capitol Reef National Park. Petrified wood is a

fossil in which the organic material has been replaced by minerals during the fossilization

process.

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The HUNTINGTON MAMMOTH was found in 1988 by people working on a dam. It is an ice age animal. The

skeleton was 90% complete. The Huntington mammoth lived about 10,500 years ago. Tooth wear and arthritis in its bones tells us it was a very old mammoth. Scientists could tell what

its last meal was! Mammoths are extinct herbivorous mammals that had long, dense hair and under fur, very long tusks, a long nose, large ears and lived throughout the world. They lived from about 2 million years ago to 9,000 years ago, millions of years after the dinosaurs went extinct. They are closely related to modern-day Indian elephants (they have common ancestor). Some tusks were straight, some were

curved; the longest were up to 13 feet (4 m) long. Mammoths had a sloping back, flat, chewing teeth.

Most of the plants around us today are flowering plants, and these did not evolve until relatively late in the Mesozoic (about 140 million years ago). During the Mesozoic Era, when the dinosaurs lived, conifers dominated the landscape. These are slow-growing evergreen trees and shrubs. Conifers included redwoods, yews, pines, the monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria), and cypress.Towards the end of the Jurassic period, flowering plants evolved and began to overtake conifers as the most common plant.

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The last Ice Age peaked about 20,000 years ago, after which the Earth again began to warm. Fossil evidence shows that by about 15,000 years ago, Ice Age people were roaming the plains and forests in North America, hunting enormous mammals with stone-pointed spears. Most of those animals were extinct by about 10,000 years ago.

During the last Ice Age, there were many large, interesting mammals, like the saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, mastodons, and mammoths. These animals have long since gone extinct and are known mostly from fossils, from frozen, mummified carcasses, and even from ancient cave drawings. The Earth was much colder than it is now; snow accumulated on much of the land, glaciers and ice sheets extended over large areas and the sea levels were lower.

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