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Paleontological Resource Overview of the Royal Gorge Field Office Planning Area

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Paleontological Resource Overview of the Royal Gorge Field Office Planning Area Paul C. Murphey Kate Zubin-Stathopoulos Courtney D. Richards Meredith A. Fontana July 2015 Paleontological Resource Overview of the Royal Gorge Field Office Planning Area Prepared by Paul C. Murphey Kate Zubin-Stathopoulos Courtney D. Richards Meredith A. Fontana Rocky Mountain Paleo Solutions Prepared for U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Royal Gorge Field Office Cañon City, CO July 2015 Paleontological Resource Overview of the Royal Gorge Field Office Planning Area ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report was prepared at the request of the Royal Gorge Field Office (RGFO) of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The purpose of the report is to provide an overview of paleontological resources in the RGFO Planning Area. In this report, we have attempted to synthesize and summarize the monumental efforts of a large number of scientists who have focused their research on paleontological and geological questions in the eastern half of Colorado. These efforts have been ongoing for more than 145 years. During the course of our research, we were humbled by the sheer number of paleontological investigations that have been conducted in the RGFO Planning Area. Working within a limited timeframe, we sought to capture the most important research in our report; despite our best efforts, however, we know that this document is not comprehensive. Specifically, we thank Melissa Smeins, Geologist with the RGFO, and Harley Armstrong, Regional Paleontologist with the BLM Colorado State Office, for direction and guidance while preparing this report. We are grateful to Ken Carpenter, Director of the Utah State University Eastern Prehistoric Museum, for allowing us to use his imaginative artwork for the front and back covers of this report. We thank the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and artists Jan Vriesen, Donna Braginetz, and Gary Staab for permission to use the set of images entitled “Ancient Denvers” in this report. For access to fossil locality data, we thank the curatorial staff at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, History Colorado, the Morrison Natural History Museum, the Royal Gorge Regional Museum & History Center, Friends of Dinosaur Ridge, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of California Museum of Paleontology, the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Special thanks are extended to individuals who provided information concerning past and present paleontological research and answered questions about specific fossil localities. These include Professor Emmett Evanoff of the University of Northern Colorado, U.S. Forest Service Paleontologist Bruce Schumacher, University of Colorado Museum Curator Emeritus Peter Robinson and Collections Manager Toni Culver, and Denver Museum of Nature & Science Curator Emeritus Richard Stucky, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology Joe Sertich, Curator of Paleobotany Ian Miller, and Collections Manager Logan Ivy. Finally, we extend our deepest thanks to the many professional and avocational paleontologists and geologists who have contributed to the wealth of knowledge that now exists about the ancient environments, biotas, and geologic history of the region now known as eastern Colorado. Their efforts have included countless hours in the field and laboratory and have resulted in an unprecedented understanding of this region. Future scientific methods and improved technologies will facilitate the advancement of our knowledge about the history of this region while continuing to provide educational opportunities for future generations. i Paleontological Resource Overview of the Royal Gorge Field Office Planning Area ABOUT THE AUTHORS Paul C. Murphey Paul Murphey received a doctorate in geological sciences with an emphasis in vertebrate paleontology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2001. His professional experience includes appointments as the Collections Manager of Paleontology, Geology and Osteology in the Geology Section of the University of Colorado Museum; instructor in the Museum and Field Studies Program at the University of Colorado Museum; and graduate faculty member in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado. He was an Associate Curator in the Department of Paleontology and the Associate Director of the Department of PaleoServices at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Dr. Murphey has been working as a Principal Investigator for paleontological resource impact mitigation projects throughout the United States for approximately 20 years. He was the Principal Paleontologist of the nationwide Paleontological Resources Program at SWCA Environmental Consultants for 11 years. In 2014, he joined Los Angeles–based Paleo Solutions as a partner and Vice President, forming Denver- based Rocky Mountain Paleo Solutions. Dr. Murphey is currently a research associate in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Department of Paleontology at the San Diego Natural History Museum. His research is focused on the evolutionary history, stratigraphy, biochronology, and depositional environments of Paleogene fossil mammals and associated rock units in the Rocky Mountain region and southern California. Kate D. Zubin-Stathopoulos Kate Zubin-Stathopoulos received a bachelor of science degree in geology with honors from St. Lawrence University in 2008 and her master of science degree in geoscience from the University of Calgary in Alberta in 2011. Her master’s thesis research focused on the biostratigraphy and paleobiogeography of Upper Paleozoic conodonts, brachiopods, crinoids, and Palaeoaplysina from British Columbia. While in graduate school she taught lab sections in paleobiology, biostratigraphy, sedimentology and stratigraphy, field mapping, and geomorphology. Ms. Zubin-Stathopoulos has extensive field experience in northwestern Canada, central and western United States, and overseas. After working as a Staff Paleontologist at SWCA Environmental Consultants from 2012 to 2014, she joined Rocky Mountain Paleo Solutions, where she serves as an Assistant Project Manager and Field Supervisor. Her paleontological resource impact mitigation project experience includes oil and gas well fields, transportation, transmission, and renewable energy. Courtney D. Richards Courtney Richards earned a bachelor of science degree in earth and space sciences from the University of Washington in 2006 and a master of science degree in biological sciences with an emphasis in paleontology from Marshall University in 2011. Her master’s thesis research focused on plesiosaur body shape and its influence on hydrodynamic properties. Her previous professional experience includes appointments as the vertebrate paleontology collection assistant at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture and Paleontology Supervisor and Assistant Field Director at Cogstone Resource Management, Inc. Ms. Richards has conducted paleontological field work in Mesozoic, Eocene, and Oligocene rock units in Montana, Utah, and Wyoming and Pliocene and Pleistocene surficial deposits throughout California. She has extensive experience with supervision of field crews; paleontological surveys; construction monitoring; geologic mapping; fossil salvage; and fossil preparation for transportation, water, energy, and land development projects. Ms. Richards joined Paleo Solutions as an Assistant Project Manager and Field Supervisor in 2014. Meredith A. Fontana Meredith Fontana received a bachelor of science degree in evolutionary biology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011 and a master of science degree in evolutionary biology with an emphasis in vertebrate paleontology from The George Washington University in 2014. Her master’s thesis research ii Paleontological Resource Overview of the Royal Gorge Field Office Planning Area was a redescription and phylogenetic analysis of the Cretaceous fossil lizard Polyglyphanodon sternbergi. Her paleontological experience spans nearly 10 years and includes research, fieldwork, and laboratory work at institutions such as the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, The Field Museum, and Petrified Forest National Park. She has conducted fieldwork throughout the southwestern United States, including Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming. Ms. Fontana also has extensive experience with fossil preparation and conservation, which she acquired during her work in the vertebrate paleontology collections at the Texas Memorial Museum and the Houston Museum of Natural Science. She joined Rocky Mountain Paleo Solutions as a Staff Paleontologist in 2015. iii Paleontological Resource Overview of the Royal Gorge Field Office Planning Area This page intentionally left blank. iv Paleontological Resource Overview of the Royal Gorge Field Office Planning Area ABSTRACT The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Royal Gorge Field Office (RGFO) Planning Area encompasses more than 35 million acres of central and eastern Colorado. This includes 668,000 surface acres of public lands and 6.8 million subsurface acres. The RGFO Planning Area is known to contain some of the most fossiliferous sedimentary rock sequences in North America. Because of their rich fossil content, these sequences have been the focus of continuous scientific inquiry for approximately the past 145 years. The fossil record of this area ranges from the Upper Cambrian Period to the end of the Pleistocene Epoch and represents a temporally
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