Fossil Friday - Back from Field Work

fieldwork1The first part of the Western Science Center's summer field season with Zuni Dinosaur Institute for the Geosciences and the Southwest Paleontological Society is now over, and that means lots of new fossils have been brought to the museum!fieldwork2WSC staff and volunteers have spent the last two weeks out in New Mexico's Menefee Formation, where new species like Invictarx zephyri and the theropod Dynamoterror dynastes were discovered. A literal ton of fossil jackets have been unloaded into the museum, and we'll now spend the foreseeable future getting our new specimens ready for research, outreach, and exhibition.fieldwork4]So what have we found? That's still being determined - though we know much of the material includes more dinosaurs. The Menefee Formation is part of the Late Cretaceous and is approximately 80 million years old. This span of time is not particularly well understood, and we hope that our work in the area will continue to shed light on this period!fieldwork3.jpgWe'll sharing much more about these fossils in the coming weeks - stay tuned for more!Post by Brittney Stoneburg.