Just off I-70, Colorado's magnificent Colorado National Monument

Erosion has carved the dramatic landscape here on the flanks of the eastern boundary of the Colorado Plateau near Grand Junction, Colorado. Steep-walled canyons cut into the plateau, their sides revealing striations of color also visible on the monoliths that loom above canyon floors. Terra cotta, sienna, rust: the spectrum of the sandstone runs through variants of brown with red and orange undertones. The name “Colorado” -- Spanish for “ruddy” or “red” -- suits this national park, where stubbles of green provided by the pinyon and juniper trees that grow below and on top of the plateaus complements the geologic hues.

According to Joan Anzelmo, superintendent of Colorado National Monument, "The name, Colorado National Monument, does not begin to describe the hidden paradise of red rock canyons and sandstone monoliths that parallel the Interstate 70 corridor stretching from Grand Junction to Fruita. It is absolutely worthwhile to get off of I-70 and take the historic Rim Rock Drive to the inner reaches of Colorado National Monument. The monument turns 100 years old in 2011.

In some respects, Colorado National Monument is a place of extremes. The sky shows off its enormity, the rock formations their height and strength. Visitors can follow “the Crookedest Road in the World” (the park’s Serpents Trail) and eat lunch in Devils Kitchen (site of a picnic area) while remaining in a hiker’s paradise.

The park offers a number of trails, which accommodate hikers seeking different degrees of challenge. Bike rides and auto tours on Rim Rock Drive afford more ways to see the park, which can be experienced tactilely as well as visually by rock climbers. Camping in the monument’s Saddlehorn Campground (80 primitive sites, RVs up to 40 feet, $10 fee) allows visitors to immerse themselves in this rugged yet serene national park. Or if they wish, at night they can stare out at the city lights of Grand Junction in the valley far below.

Every November, runners come to Colorado National Monument to compete in the 26.2 mile Rim Rock Marathon, a race across the entire length of the monument's Rim Rock Drive. The race is one of the longest through any National Park Service site. 

New dinosaur rears head in Dinosaur National Monument

A team of paleontologists from Dinosaur National Monument, Brigham Young University, and the University of Michigan have announced the discovery of a new, large, plant-eating dinosaur, Abydosaurus mcintoshi, (pronounced Ab-id-o-saurus mak-in-toshi). The discovery is described this week in the on-line first section of the science journal Naturwissenschaften.

The fossil remains were excavated from the 105-million-year-old Cedar Mountain Formation in Dinosaur National Monument. The new find contains rare and spectacular fossils, including the only complete sauropod skull in the entire Western Hemisphere from the last 80 million years of the Age of Dinosaurs.

“Because skulls are made up of many thin and fragile bones they are easily destroyed and rarely preserved. So although more than 120 species of sauropods have been discovered across the globe, complete skulls are extremely rare.” said Dr. Dan Chure, paleontologist at Dinosaur. “However, skulls are complex structures that provide a great deal of information about the dinosaur’s biology and evolution, so they are extremely important. You can hardly overstate the significance of these fossils.”

“Discovering a complete sauropod skull is remarkable. I've been collecting dinosaurs since the age of 14, and these complete skulls are the most spectacular fossils I've had the opportunity to work on” said BYU researcher Brooks Britt. “All the Abydosaurus fossils we have collected to date are juveniles, only a mere 25 feet or so in length. How large a fully adult individual was is unknown but it was certainly much larger.”

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN researcher Jeff Wilson and his graduate student John Whitlock studied the feeding adaptations of Abydosaurus. Wilson noted that “Sauropods, one of the most diverse and long lived lineages of dinosaurs, are surprising in that they show none of the adaptations seen in other plant-eating dinosaurs, such as beaks for slicing or cheeks to hold in food while chewing. Yet in spite of the lack of any specializations, they were around for 150 million years and are the largest land dwelling animals in the history of life.” Whitlock added, “Abydosaurus is from a time period when titanosauriform sauropods began to develop a slimmer tooth shape from the broader teeth of their ancestors. This change in tooth shape is related to changes in diet in a way we are only just beginning to understand, in part because we haven't always had the fossils to tell the whole story. Abydosaurus is the right dinosaur at the right time to answer some of these questions."

This announcement is the result of a several years of research, beginning with excavations started in the late 1990s. The site contains not just one individual but the remains of a group of sauropods, at least four individuals and likely more since additional fossils are still in the ground. Most parts of the skeleton are present:  neck and tail vertebrae, shoulder blades, pelvis, arms, legs, hands, feet, and four skulls --- two complete and two incomplete.