Page 16 - The Dinosaur Book and Other Wonders of the Prehistoric World (DK-Smithsonian)

BURGESS SHALE
Country: Canada
Famous fossil: Trilobites
This 508 million-year-old layer
of shale rock in the Canadian SOLNHOFEN
Rockies has some of the Country: Germany
world’s oldest animal fossils. Famous fossil: Archaeopteryx
Limestone from this quarry contains
Introduction fossils found, including Archaeopteryx,
some of the most perfect Jurassic
a feathered, birdlike dinosaur.

DINOSAUR NATIONAL
MONUMENT
Country: US
Famous fossil: Allosaurus
At least 11 dinosaur
species have been found
here, entombed in
rock that formed on
a riverbed.

HELL CREEK
Country: US
GHOST RANCH Famous fossil: Triceratops
Country: US Many dinosaur fossils have
Famous fossil: Coelophysis been found in this site, which
More than 1,000 skeletons was once a forest bordering an
of the small Triassic dinosaur ocean that submerged the
Coelophysis make this site American prairies.
one of the world’s largest
dinosaur bone beds.

AUCA MAHUEVO
Country: Argentina VALLEY OF THE MOON
Famous fossil: Saltasaurus Country: Argentina
Once a floodplain beside a Famous fossil: Eoraptor
river, this desert is littered Some of the earliest dinosaurs
with broken dinosaur eggs known to science were found in
from the Cretaceous— this desert valley, which
probably the remains of resembles the lunar surface.
a nesting colony of the
sauropod Saltasaurus.

Fossil f inds

Most fossils are found in sedimentary rock that formed from ancient layers of mud
and sand. Sedimentary rock is found worldwide, but a few key sites have especially
clear fossils of animals that didn’t fully decay, preserving fine details like feathers or
skin. Many fossils are found in deserts, not because animals fossilize well in deserts,

14 but because the large expanses of exposed rock make fossils easier to spot.

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