Upcoming visit to the Denver museum of science

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I have some tenative plans to visit the Denver museum of Science in August, in particular, yes the dinosaur exhibits in particular. I wanted to ask if anyone has any picture requests or anything so I can be sure and get that for anyone who is wanting to see a particular mount or exhibit, let me know . Auguest 16 is my planned visit date so feel free if there is something you want pictured....or visited there;

[Takama]

The Gargoylesaurus Skeleton

[amargasaurus cazaui]

The Gargoylesaurus Skeleton

Awesome suggestion, I will make sure to do that . A discovery by Ken Carpenter no less....a must do then.

[Georassic]

Hey Amarga, if you are going to be in Colorado Springs during your Colorado visit, shoot me a message. I'd love to meet you for lunch/coffee/beer and say hello!

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Hey Amarga, if you are going to be in Colorado Springs during your Colorado visit, shoot me a message. I'd love to meet you for lunch/coffee/beer and say hello!

Plans at this point are to head out on saturday the 15th at six am from kansas, we intend to be in Canon city by three that afternoon at the rock shop...reason for this raid is a pallet of dinosaur bone rough at 3.00 per pound. I have a modest goal of bringing back some four hundred pounds of it, for my sphere work, collection and some for resale to help with my expenses involved. We plan to finish there around six in the evening and hit the road for Denver, some two hours north as I understand and spend the night in Denver at a hotel. Up at nine and waiting when the museum opens to visit the dinosaurs!!! I am not sure if that means we pass through Colorado springs or what....perhaps you can explain it for me better, but that is the outline and plan for now.

[Georassic]

Depending on your route, you might pass through CoSprings either en route to Canon City, or on the way from Canon City to Denver. I-25 passes through the Springs and is the fastest route from Canon City to Denver; I live less than 10 minutes from one of the exits on the north end of CoSprings. But your route may also take you via some of the secondary US and CO highways through the Rocky Mountains... for instance US 50 is the east-west route into Canon City. Those highways are certainly more scenic than me. 

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Depending on your route, you might pass through CoSprings either en route to Canon City, or on the way from Canon City to Denver. I-25 passes through the Springs and is the fastest route from Canon City to Denver; I live less than 10 minutes from one of the exits on the north end of CoSprings. But your route may also take you via some of the secondary US and CO highways through the Rocky Mountains... for instance US 50 is the east-west route into Canon City. Those highways are certainly more scenic than me. 

I will find out what route my brother chose, he is handling the driving chores so he has the route planned.

[Georassic]

Cool. If your schedule, route and brother allow, the invitation stands! 

[Halichoeres]

I'm going to be there the week before, August 9. I'm flying though, sorry to disappoint, Georassic!

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Brother has stated we will pass through Colorado springs on the way to the rock shop and once we are done , and headed to denver. I would not like to delay getting there, to get this done, but once we have acquired the necessary materials it would work out nicely as we head north to denver to stop and say hi, if you wish. As our goal is then to spend the night at a hotel, in denver and up first thing to hit the museum that next morning, it would fall in place nicely. My brother said we could even invite you to meet us at the museum if you wanted that next morning if the day before doesnt work out

[amargasaurus cazaui]

So this whole crazy project get started a few weeks ago when I was sitting here on a sunday and began getting texts and emails from my brother...my mother and he, and step dad were in Colorado at this rock shop in Canon City, and found these two pallets. In my use and work with dinosaur bone, I often pay upwards of 20-30 dollars a pound for primo nice high end material. Finding it at these rates is both a touch of pure heaven and a horrible temptation. Since my brother kindly offered to take me there, we are going there the weekend of the 15th of August to raid this pallet of bone and as we call it...."high-grade" it to the bottom. He has stated we can bring back four hundred total pounds in his car, (BMW ) so yay me, and thats why we are coming.







The coprolite goes without explaining beyond that it is gorgeous as a gem material to make carvings, jewelry and such with due to the rich pallet of colors and patterns and crystal infill in the originally hollow areas.
The bone is a more tricky thing....the American Southwest is known for its high quality silica replaced gem quality dinosaur bone. It is often found as float or lose chunks, that have either been eroded by wind or water, and have lost morphology as far as what bone or what dinosaur. There are many places througout the four corners area of the US notorious for certain qualities and types of both petrified wood........so when I state we will high grade this pallet of bone, it means taking along a small chisel to make a chip in each to check the color and pattern, a squirt bottle to wet each piece down and look for coloring or patterns, and finally a critical eye to check for cracks, vugs, pits, and other flaws as well as qualities like desert varnish, bubble agate, and calcite fossilization. At the end of the day we wish to secure any piece with nice colors, patterns, hardness, and solid for each piece as possible. Pieces failing to meet our grading are low grade, and will be left behind most likely....for another customer with different criteria or uses for it.

[Georassic]

I'm going to be there the week before, August 9. I'm flying though, sorry to disappoint, Georassic!

Connecting with you would be cool, too, Tim!

[Georassic]

Brother has stated we will pass through Colorado springs on the way to the rock shop and once we are done , and headed to denver. I would not like to delay getting there, to get this done, but once we have acquired the necessary materials it would work out nicely as we head north to denver to stop and say hi, if you wish. As our goal is then to spend the night at a hotel, in denver and up first thing to hit the museum that next morning, it would fall in place nicely. My brother said we could even invite you to meet us at the museum if you wanted that next morning if the day before doesnt work out

Let's play it by ear and see what our schedules hold!

[Patrx]

Neat! It was a trip to a small museum called "Dinosaur Depot" in Cañon City six years ago that compelled me to start seriously collecting dinosaur models in the first place. They were using Safari/Carnegie models to supplement the exhibits and I thought, "hey, that looks surprisingly good; maybe I could do that!"


Sadly, the place is no longer in operation. I believe some of the casts they had were sold to Greg Tally's Best Western Dino Hotel in Denver, but I don't know what became of the rest.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

When my mother was in Canon city recently she purchased for a large piece of dinosaur bone from the local rock shop. Yesterday she brought it to me ....early Christmas present. Here are some pictures for those who do not own any dinosaur bones....what you are viewing is a 26 pound vertebrae centrum. The processes face the bottom and at some point someone sawed them flat to allow the piece to stand...Just above the cutoof point is the now debris filled canal where the spinal cord passed through. I am unsure what species, but general assumption would be some form of sauropod given the massive size. The final picture I have linked is a seperate small chunk she also got for me...while cleaning it I discovered the structures you see visible.....So I thought I would have a little fun with it. Does anyone know what these small structures are? I will tell you the piece they are imbedded in was at one time a solid piece of dinosaur bone ....Curious to see if anyone can identify the structures and in so doing give a name to what piece the chunk is from. (Yes I know, so lets see if someone can guess)

[Halichoeres]

I must admit I'm at a loss with that photo. Maybe I could pick something out with more glancing light (or a scale bar), but as it is the best I can muster is maybe picking out the vertically oriented lighter-colored striation and guessing that it could be a marrow cavity (and hence a leg bone). But really grasping at straws here.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I asked Ken Carpenter to examine some pictures of this vert for me and give me his impressions..which are stunning. I just adore watching this guys mind turn and can only admire how sharply honed his skills are . Here is a direct quote from his email.....


      Regretably, the specimen lacks all the diagnostic features for a species identification and most of the photos are too close and show only a part of the vertebra, not the entire thing. What can be said from the photos is that:

1)  based on the color difference of inside and outside, the specimen was found lying on the ground where it bleached by the sun;

2) based on the color of the rock still filling the pneumatic foramen on the side of the centrum, it came from the Morrison Formation, hence is Late Jurassic (~150 mya);

3) based on the overall size  it is a medium-sized sauropod;

4) the presence of a suture between the lower part of the vertebra (the centrum) and upper (neural arch) seen as a "crack" on the cut surface, it is a young adult;

5) based on the rather short front-to-back length versus height it is from the seaqcrum or tail near the pelvis;

6) however, the flaring outwards structures on the side are located at the front edge of the centrum, which is for the sacral ribs, therefore this is a sacral centrum, not a caudal.

7) the slightly rounded posterior (rear) face  indicates the next vertebra had a "cup"-shaped anterior to receive the rounded face. this indicates this centrum is the last in the sacrum, otherwise it would have a completly flat face to attached unmoveably with the next vertebra.

The rounded posterior and small pneumatic foramen (assuming I understand the photo) excludes most Morrison sauropods, but not Diplodocus. Unfortunately, it is not possible to say which species.

[Georassic]

Amazing diagnostic.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

It makes good sense, and just shows how much is there that most people would never know how to interpret...