UW Unearthed Four Dinosaur Fossils in Montana Including Theropods, Triceratops, and a Potential Rear Ostrich-Mimic Anzu

The University of Washington and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture have conducted a recent paleontological dig in the northeastern regions of Montana, and what they found was a group of dinosaurs buried throughout the time. The fossils are gathered and will be sent to the Burke Museum for further studies. The analysis of fossils could be viewed by the public, and among the anticipated activity is the detachment of residual rocks from the fossil.

DIG Field School Program in Hell Creek Formation

The dinosaur fossils excavated from the Montana site are a collective of different bones of four distinct species. According to ScienceDaily, the collection comprises hip bones or ilium, legs, pelvis, toe claws, limbs, and skulls. The species that are theorized to be the previous owner of the prehistoric bones are the two-legged, meat-eating theropods, a duck-billed dinosaur, an ostrich-mimic Anzu, and a triceratops. Three out of four of the fossil collection were excavated near the immediate perimeters of a vast property leased to a rancher, which happened to be part of the Bureau of Land Management.

The paleontological dig in Montana was made possible through the collaborative efforts between K-12 educators, volunteers, and paleontology staff of the DIG Field School project and several students from the University of Washington. Other institutes uncovered the discovery in a well-known spot for Cretaceous findings called the Hell Creek Formation. The said geologic site is composed of preserved prehistoric evidence that dates back to 66 to 68 million years ago.

The Hell Creek Project, compared to the traditional paleontological studies, is dedicated to studying the K-Pg mass extinction comprehensively instead of focusing on just a single, specific fossil discovery. The Hell Creek Project was already prepared by other paleontology experts before and is still being continued by other collaborators to reveal more of the potential reasons how the extinction event killed dinosaurs and leaving off species of birds. In addition, the spot in which the Hell Creek is located holds a lot of data from the prehistoric plants and animals without tarnish from human-induced activities and in an unbiased manner.

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University of Washington's Comprehensive Study on K-Pg Mass Extinction Event

University of Washington biologist and Burke Museum vertebrae paleontology expert Gregory Wilson Mantilla said in a Daily Mail report that the fossils their team collects are key to a more definitive perspective about what happened to the transition between the last dinosaur-dominated ecology and the first mammal-dominated environment. The expert added that the findings from these projects would help us gain more knowledge about the processes that take place throughout the biodiversity and fragility and the collapse and assembly of the planet's ecosystems.

The dinosaurs, excluding the triceratops, will be prepared soon in the Burke Museum's fossil management laboratory. The team decided that the triceratops fossil should be left in its original place to find more supporting evidence surrounding the rocks and additional excavation for possible discoveries waiting to be unearthed. The overall project is expected to conclude next year.

Burke Museums's visitors can now observe the first batch of rocks removed from the group of dinosaur fossils. The first part managed by the preparation laboratory experts is the theropod hips and will be followed by additional parts in the next weeks to come.