Paleontologists Through The Ages

Here you can see park paleontologist, ReBecca Hunt-Foster, scaling the historic Wall of Bones inside the Quarry Exhibit Hall. The building was erected in 1958 to protect the bones and excavators. It was closed for renovations between 2006 and 2011.

NPS Photo

On August 17, 1909, a man named Earl Douglass was trekking across the ancient hills of northeastern Utah in search of dinosaurs. Like all paleontologists, he was a scientist whose work involved learning about ancient life by studying fossil remains. After finding nothing but fragments for several weeks, he was elated to discover 8 intact tailbones of an Apatosaurus peeking out of a dusty ridge. The Wall of Bones inside the Quarry Exhibit Hall is what remains of that original ridge. It is the culmination of over 100 years of work by many different people, and has been visited by hundreds of thousands of people since its excavation. Although paleontologists represent just a small fraction of the people who have contributed to Dinosaur National Monument's rich history, their work has been — and continues to be — critical to Dinosaur's reputation as a place of learning and discovery.

 

 

Formally-Trained Paleontologists

While not all of the following individuals were official Park Paleontologists of Dinosaur National Monument, all of them had formal education in the field of paleontology. Although they arrived here at different times, each was drawn to this area by the dazzling array of dinosaurian fossils buried here. Each is listed by name, along with their years worked at Dinosaur National Monument.

 

Earl Douglass found the first fossils of the Carnegie Quarry in 1909 and oversaw excavations of the site for 15 years until 1924. (Cropped Photo)

NPS Douglass Collection, edited by Evan Hall

Earl Douglass (1909 - 1924)

In 1909, Earl Douglass worked as a paleontologist for the Carnegie Museum in Pennsylvania. When the museum's directors tasked him with finding dinosaur bones that could be mounted for display in the museum, Douglass arrived in Utah later that same year. After weeks of searching, he finally found 8 vertebrae of an Apatosaurus naturally eroding out of the rock. These were the first bones of the historic Carnegie Quarry. Douglass ended up overseeing excavations of the Carnegie Quarry for the next 15 years until 1924. During that time, he and his team extracted over 350 tons of fossils.

As a scientist, Douglass was passionate that fossils remain available for public education and scientific study. He was instrumental in getting the 80 acres (0.32 sq. km) in and around the Carnegie Quarry protected as a national monument in 1915. He was also the visionary behind the Quarry Exhibit Hall, a building which today houses the only remaining section of the quarry hillside. Today, this building houses a slab of sandstone where over 1,500 dinosaur bones are exposed in relief. Although he never saw the finished product, Douglass hoped that this new museum would be a place where people from all over the world could learn about the distant past. Because of his significant contributions to Dinosaur National Monument so early on, Douglass has his own webpage as an important historical figure. Visit the Earl Douglass page to learn more about his life.

 

Dr. Theodore E. White was Dinosaur National Monument's first official park paleontologist.

NPS Photo

Ted White (1953 - 1973)

Dr. Theodore "Ted" White was hired in 1953 as Dinosaur National Monument's first official Park Paleontologist. He was trained as a zooarcheologist, a scientist who studies animal remains from archeological sites. Before coming to Dinosaur, he had worked for the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Army, and Harvard University. He was hired thanks to funding from the National Park Service's Mission 66 development plan. Paleontological work at the Carnegie Quarry had stalled after 1924 due to a lack of funding. The previous paleontologist, Earl Douglass, knew that the remaining slab of Morrison Formation sandstone at the Quarry site likely contained numerous dinosaur fossils. Douglass had recommended leaving the rock in place to protect those fossils from theft until they could be excavated. Since Mission 66 reignited work at the Quarry, White's main task was to oversee the removal of excess rock so that the fossils could be revealed. He also picked up the education and museum curatorial duties from former park custodian, Dr. Albert C. Boyle. White hired the park's first official paleontological staff to assist his work, including Jim Adams and Tobe Wilkins. While many staff members had no previous experience in paleontology, White carefully trained them to prepare the fossils for display.

 

Park Paleontologist, Russell B. King stands here in front of the famous Wall of Bones at the Quarry Exhibit Hall.

University of Michigan, Museum of Paleontology

Russ King (1975 - 1978)

Russell B. King was born in 1943. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in paleontology, he was hired as Dinosaur's second Park Paleontologist in 1975, following the tenure of Dr. Ted White. King quickly distinguished himself as an outgoing and energetic paleontologist with a zest for life. Some of his projects included the investigation and description of a previously unknown ear-bone found in brontosaurus-like sauropod dinosaurs. He also researched a tooth-bearing jaw bone that was unlike anything else previously found in the Carnegie Quarry. King was the paleontologist responsible for overseeing the excavation of a baby Stegosaurus skeleton in the Wall of Bones. Despite being only a partial skeleton, the baby uncovered during King's tenure remains one of the most complete specimens of a juvenile Stegosaurus yet discovered.

Russ King tragically passed away in a fishing accident after only 3.5 years as Dinosaur's paleontologist. Jim Adams, a fossil excavator employed at Dinosaur at the time told the Vernal Express, "Russ was the greatest. He brought out the best in everyone he met." His passion for scientific outreach prompted him to hold question-and-answer sessions with the press whenever the park uncovered something unique. He worked to opened lines of communication with international paleontologists regarding ongoing work at the quarry. Perhaps his most significant contribution was a comprehensive inventory of the Quarry's fossils, which number over 1,500. That project was about 80% complete when Russ passed.

 

Ann Schaffer Elder reaches up to touch the top of a Diplodocus femur. While she didn't serve in the role of Park Paleontologist, Elder held a master's degree in geology/paleontology and made significant contributions to the park during her tenure.

NPS Photo

Ann Schaffer Elder (1984 - 2008)

While Ann Elder did not serve in the role of Park Paleontologist, she was formally trained in paleontology and held numerous important positions during her time here at the park. Elder was born in 1958 and grew up in Frederick, Maryland. In 1980, she earned her bachelor's degree in geology from the University of Vermont, and her master's degree in geology and paleontology in 1992 from Utah State University. Her career with the National Park Service began at Fossil Butte National Monument. When fossil technician Jim Adams retired from Dinosaur after a tenure of over 30 years, Elder was hired in 1984 to fill the gap. As a museum specialist, Elder helped to excavate the fossils and prepare them for display. She could often be spotted in her white jumpsuit on the Wall of Bones, identifying and recording fossils as she uncovered them. Later, Elder also served as the park's Exhibit Curator. When she wasn't on the wall, in the collections room, or the prep lab, Elder could often be found in the visitor center where she would welcome audiences and use her expertise to describe the exhibits there.

When the Quarry Exhibit Hall closed for renovations in 2006, Ann Elder helped to preserve the exhibits. She worked for Dinosaur for 2 more years before moving on to serve as a teacher and consultant at other museums. She later accepted a position to serve as a Resource Management Lead at Colorado National Monument. The fruits of Elder's work can still be viewed today in the expertly-prepared fossils on the Wall of Bones at the Quarry Exhibit Hall. The plant-eating dinosaur, Dryosaurus elderae, was named in her honor.

 

Dan Chure served as park paleontologist from 1979 to 2017. He is known for his fantastic mustache and for describing numerous holotype specimens, including Allosaurus jimmadseni.

NPS / Dan Johnson

Dan Chure (1979 - 2017)

Dr. Daniel "Dan" Chure served as Dinosaur National Monument's Park Paleontologist from 1979 to 2017. During his time as park paleontologist, Chure oversaw the final excavations of the Wall of Bones at the Quarry Exhibit Hall. The goal was never to remove every single fossil. Instead, it was to fulfill the original vision of Earl Douglass, to expose the fossils "in relief as they were buried, preserved, and again unveiled to us." After 40 years of near-continuous excavation, Chure deemed the Wall of Bones complete and excavations on it ended in the 1990s. But there were many more fossils to discover around the park!

Chure participated in numerous excavations during his lengthy tenure as Dinosaur's Park Paleontologist. He even oversaw the excavations of some new species, including a remarkable skeleton from the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation. Chure co-wrote the paper on this new find, which was named Allosaurus jimmadseni in honor of Chure's former professor, James "Jim" Madsen, a paleontologist known for his work at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. Dan Chure is still celebrated for his research and extensive body of published work, including several holotype descriptions. One of these holotypes, which describes the tooth of a small meat-eating dinosaur, Chure named Koparion douglassi in honor of Earl Douglass, who discovered the Carnegie Quarry.

 

ReBecca Hunt-Foster became park paleontologist of Dinosaur National Monument in 2019. She is passionate about public education and outreach.

NPS Photo

ReBecca Hunt-Foster (2018 - Now)

Today, ReBecca Hunt-Foster is the official Park Paleontologist for Dinosaur National Monument. She has been doing paleontological work in Utah and Colorado since 2007. Hunt-Foster wrote the holotype description for a dinosaur called Arkansaurus fridayi. She also helped to prepare the first dinosaur specimen ever discovered in Antarctica, Cryolophosaurus. Her current research is focused mainly on the Jurassic and Cretaceous animals of eastern Utah and western Colorado.

Since signing on with Dinosaur National Monument in August of 2018, ReBecca Hunt-Foster has done double-duty as both Park Paleontologist and Curator of the monument's extensive museum collection. After the Quarry Exhibit Hall closed for renovations in 2006, the artifacts it housed were redistributed to many locations around the park. Dinosaur holds more than 49,000 objects in its museum archive, but nobody had done a full inventory of the artifacts since Ann Elder's last report in 2007. Upon her arrival, Hunt-Foster began the process of finding and relocating Dinosaur's artifacts to a site just 30 minutes away, at the Utah Field House Museum of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal. Not only is the entire collection organized and consolidated in one place now, but the Field House also has the space and equipment to properly store these sensitive artifacts. Thanks to Hunt-Foster, a full inventory of the park's collection has been completed every year since. She is deeply passionate about education and outreach, and works hard to make the monument's amazing museum collection accessible to researchers from around the world.

 

Important Figures in Paleontology

Although the individuals listed below weren't formally educated as paleontologists, they all conducted important paleontological work here at the monument. Their contributions and unique expertise are a big part of why Dinosaur National Monument remains such a significant paleontological site today.

 

Dr. Albert C. Boyle, Jr. was a geologist and miner by trade. He was at Dinosaur National Monument in 1933 and became Acting Custodian in 1935.

NPS Photo

Albert C. Boyle, Jr.

Earl Douglass found the first bones of the Carnegie Quarry in 1909, and stayed for the next 15 years to oversee excavations of the site. These excavations ended in 1924, but Douglass knew that there were still bones to be found here. In 1923, he wrote a letter to Dr. Charles Doolittle Walcott, director of the Smithsonian Institution. In this letter, Douglass described his vision for what would become the Quarry Exhibit Hall:

"I hope that the Government, for the benefit of science and the people, will uncover a large area, leave the bones and skeletons in relief and house them. It would make one of the most astounding and instructive sights imaginable." — Earl Douglass, 1923

Earl Douglass passed away in 1931. With the Great Depression underway, it wasn't until 1933 that Dr. Albert C. Boyle, Jr. was hired to begin turning Earl Douglass's vision into reality. Boyle was a geologist and miner who had worked for the Union Pacific Railroad and Wyoming School of Mines before starting with Dinosaur National Monument. Initially, his job was to oversee excavations at the quarry, but he was made Acting Custodian of the monument in 1935. In response to the need for millions of jobs during the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal funded critical public works projects across many National Park Service sites. The work at Dinosaur was completed by crews from the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA). Dr. Boyle oversaw these crews who removed much of the rock on top of the fossils. They also widened the trench in front of the quarry so that a large museum could be built, and improved the access road as well as other facilities around the monument.

Boyle began some of the first interpretive (educational) efforts at Dinosaur National Monument. Before the Quarry Exhibit Hall was built, he opened the monument's first museum, where visitors could view fossils and archeological artifacts. He also taught the work crews about paleontology and geology so that they could educate visitors too. Boyle was known to take folks from the work crews around on "field trips" to collect educational fossil samples, and encouraged them to think creatively about their work. Dr. Boyle stayed on with Dinosaur National Monument until 1938, when the work stopped as World War II began. Although he wasn't educated as a paleontologist, Boyle's geological expertise and contributions marked the first concerted effort to turn Dinosaur National Monument into the "astounding and instructive" place Earl Douglass had imagined.

 

Jim Adams and Floyd "Tobe" Wilkins each worked as fossil technicians for over 30 years.

NPS / Linda West

Jim Adams & Floyd "Tobe" Wilkins

Jim Adams and Floyd "Tobe" Wilkins were two fossil technicians that worked at Dinosaur National Monument for 31 and 32 years, respectively. Both were former miners hired during Dr. Ted White's tenure as park paleontologist. Back then, the Wall of Bones at the Quarry Exhibit Hall was mostly just a wall of rock. Before fossil excavations could begin, much of that hard sandstone had to be removed. It was Adams and Wilkins who did much of that difficult job. When the first bones started to appear, Dr. White trained the former miners in the art of recognizing fossils and carefully excavating them. Pretty soon, Adams and Wilkins had become two of Dinosaur National Monument's foremost fossil preparators!

Even after White retired in 1973, Adams and Wilkins continued their important work. They diligently cleared excess rock material from the bone wall and prepared the fossils for display so that they could be easily viewed by visitors. Adams also assisted with curatorial duties for the park's museum collection. In the course of their employment at Dinosaur, Adams and Wilkins got to work with many of the other paleontologists mentioned on this page, including Russ King, Ann Elder, and Dan Chure. The men retired during Chure's time, but you can still see the results of their beautiful fossil preparation work on the Wall of Bones today.