Ghost Ranch, New Mexico
- Details
Scientific fields: Fossils, Dinosaurs, Palaeontology
Star rating: ***
Summary description:
Site preserving Triassic and Jurassic fossils, especially Coelophysis bauri, a fast running, lightly built 2m-long carnivorous dinosaur. Located in a setting of great natural beauty, the site includes a palaeontology museum, with displays that range from a complete Coelophysis bauri skeleton to remains of huge alligator-like reptiles, together with facilities for lodging and camping. Visitors can watch dinosaur skeletons being expertly unearthed from blocks excavated at the fossil site – a nearby quarry – and group visits to the quarry itself can also be arranged. An additional attraction at the site is an anthropology museum.
Location:
North central New Mexico, 65 miles northwest of Santa Fe, close to US highway 84 where it passes Abiquiú reservoir.
Getting there:
To find the site, watch for the Ghost Ranch sign between mileposts 224 and 225 on Highway 84, approximately 13 miles north of Bode's Store in the town of Abiquiú.
Background:
In the summer of 1947, the American palaeontologists George Whitaker and Edwin Colbert discovered an accumulation of over 1000 fossilised Coelophysis bauri skeletons in a quarry (known today as Whitaker quarry) at Ghost Ranch. Blocks excavated from the quarry were subsequently distributed to museums all over the world. Coelophysis bauri was a carnivorous dinosaur, typically 2 to 2.5 metres (6 to 8 feet) long when fully grown, that ran around on its hind limbs. The fossils found in the Whitaker quarry included both juveniles and adults of both sexes. No one knows for sure why so many dinosaurs of one species died there all at once. The leading hypothesis is that the animals drowned in a flood, were washed into a lake, and immediately buried by sediment.
Other quarries at Ghost Ranch have yielded fossils of various other dinosaurs, crocodile-like reptiles, fish and amphibians. Ghost Ranch itself – the land and buildings – is run as a retreat, education centre, and conference centre by the Presbyterian Church.
Opening hours and charges:
The palaeontology museum at Ghost Ranch, called the Ruth Hall Museum of Palaeontology, is open from 9 am to 5 pm on Tuesdays to Saturdays (and from mid-April through October on Sundays as well). Closed all year on Mondays. Call to verify – 505.685.4333 ext. 4118. To enquire about arranging a group outing with visit to quarry, call 505.685.4333 ext 118. For enquiries about lodging and camping, call 505.685.4333, ext 0 – or toll free 877.804-4678, ext 0.
Website: http://ghostranch.org/tours-activities/paleontology/
Related sites (partial list at present):
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Dinosaur Museums of Patagonia, Argentina
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Dinosaur Provincial Park, nr Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Jurassic Coast, Devon and Dorset, England
Messel Pit, near Frankfurt, Germany
Milodon Cave, Patagonia, Chile
Riversleigh Fossil Fields, Queensland, Australia
Rancho La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, California, USA
Valley of the Whales, Wadi Al-Hitan, Egypt
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