RECONSTRUCTING RIVERS -- A COLLABORATIVE UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECT IN SEDIMENTOLOGY IN DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT

I have conducted collaborative faculty-student research for undergraduates in Dinosaur National Monument (DNM) during the summers of 2000-2002. The initial motivation for this study was the recent discovery and excavation of a sauropod bone bed in the Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation. Decades of extensive stratigraphic and sedimentologic study in the area have focused on the Jurassic Morrison Formation, the source of most of the fossils in the Monument. The overlying Cedar Mountain Formation, which until recently was thought to lack significant fossil material, has gone relatively unstudied. Our sedimentary facies analysis of the Cedar Mountain Formation contributes significantly to paleoenvironmental interpretation of the sauropod's habitat. The nature of this research is ideally suited to participation by undergraduates: the research questions to be investigated are easily comprehended, the significance appeals to any student interested in dinosaurs, and the needed field techniques can be developed quickly. Field research results have been used to design an experimental sedimentology project, using flume facilities at the University of Minnesota's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, thereby providing students with an experience that combines traditional field observation with state-of-the-art experiments to test field hypotheses.

Preparing to conduct geological research within National Park Service entails significantly more advance planning than does research on other public lands. The research permitting process begins early in the year, and compliance with NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act requires clearance from the Monument's archeologist and botanist for any areas we remove soil cover to observe bedrock.

Advantages to working within DNM, particularly for the quality of students' experience, are immeasurable. Students have the opportunity to learn from the professional paleontologists and geologists on staff at DNM, as well as other scientists conducting research there - those who are most knowledgeable about our research, and who are most enthusiastic about its outcome. Working and camping within the Monument also provides students with rich opportunities to learn from interpretive staff about local ecosystems, archeology, wildlife, and water resource management.