Fossil of the Week

Lateral spine from Mymoorapelta (MWC 1820), discovered in 1989 by Jim Kirkland and Dinosaur International Society dig participants at the Mygatt-Moore Quarry

Mymoorapelta was the first ankylosaur discovered in the Jurassic of North America. This dinosaur was discovered in the Morrison Formation (Brushy Basin Member) at the Mygatt-Moore Quarry, located in western Colorado’s Rabbit Valley. It represented a totally new group of dinosaurs in the Morrison Formation, one that hadn’t been found in this rock unit in 125 years of previous work! Mymoorapelta was covered in bony armor and had sharp spines along its body. This defensive armor included a shield over the pelvis and two rings of bone around the upper half of its neck, just behind the skull. The fossils of Mymoorapelta collected at the Mygatt-Moore Quarry are curated and on display at Dinosaur Journey Museum. This Jurassic ankylosaur is currently being studied by Dr. Jim Kirkland (the Utah State Paleontologist) and our paleontologists at Dinosaur Journey.

Mymoorapelta is on display at the Museum of Western Colorado's Dinosaur Journey.

References:

Kirkland, J. I. and Carpenter,  K. 1994. North America’s first pre-Cretaceous ankylosaur (Dinosauria) from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of western Colorado. Brigham Young University Geology Studies 40:25-42

Kirkland, J. I., Carpenter, K., Hunt, A. P., and Scheetz, R. D. 1998. Ankylosaur (DInosauria) specimens from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. Modern Geology 23:145-177.

Foster, John. 2007. “Gargantuan to Minuscule: The Morrison Menagerie, Part II”. in Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World. Indiana University Press: 214-216.

Any material in our collections are covered under a permit though the appropriate agency and curated at the Museum of Western Colorado, unless otherwise noted.