Paleontologists from SWCA Environmental Consultants excavate a fossil turtle from Late Cretaceous marine shale in South Dakota for the DM&E Railroad Project. The gypsum-encrusted jaw of a baby mosasaur (a marine monitor lizard) was discovered during SWCA surveys in the Claggett Shale (~75 million years old) in Montana for the Keystone XL Pipeline Project. SWCA paleontologists Dale Hanson and Stephanie Lukowski survey in the Cretaceous (~65 million years old) Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota for the Keystone XL Pipeline Project. In Northeastern Utah's Uinta Basin, SWCA paleontologists conducted surveys in the Eocene (~44 million years old) Uinta Formation for Anadarko Petroleum. A well-preserved jaw of the extinct, sheep-like mammal Protoreodon was among the discoveries. Another jaw — this time of the small ancestral rhinoceros Forstercooperia — was collected during well pad construction in the Uinta Basin, Utah. Also discovered during surveys in Utah for Anadarko Petroleum were these vertebral centra from an extinct mammal. SWCA paleontologists monitor grading of a well pad as part of the Berry Petroleum Project in Ashley National Forest, Utah. The skull of the Middle Eocene Brontothere Metarhinus was eroding from the Uinta Formation on Bureau of Land Management land in Northeastern Utah. This astragalus, or ankle bone, is from the primitive horse Epihippus and was found in the Uinta Formation. Fossil insect larvae preserved in the Green River Formation in Utah was collected by SWCA paleontologists during a project for the Utah Department of Transportation. SWCA paleontologist Georgia Knauss perches on a hillside in the Hell Creek Formation, world-renowned for the large number of well-preserved dinosaur skeletons and other fossils it has produced, for the Keystone XL Pipeline Project in Montana. In the prairies of South Dakota, Rachel Brown joins Stephanie Lukowski in the Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale, within the survey corridor for the Keystone XL Pipeline Project. During a blizzard, SWCA paleontologists work to extract the jaw of the extinct horse Mesohippus from the White River Formation in Northeastern Colorado as part of the Niobrara 3D Geophysical Exploration Project. Sunnier but still chilly weather greets SWCA paleontologist Paul Murphey as he leads a field trip for the Ninth Conference on Fossil Resources to historic Church Butte in the Bridger Formation in Wyoming. During grading for the Talega residential development project in Orange County, California, paleontologists salvaged an incredible array of fossils. Among the finds was the partial skeleton of the ancestral sea lion Allodesmus from the Middle Miocene Monterey Formation. The skull of the Allodesmus — on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum — was collected during the Talega project grading. The skull of a juvenile Desmostylid — a member of an extinct order of Miocene marine mammals commonly known as
HTML Slideshow by VisualSlideshow.com v1.5