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Jurassic National Monument
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jurassic National Monument, at the site of the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, well known for containing the densest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur fossils ever found, is a paleontological site located near Cleveland, Utah, in the San Rafael Swell, a part of the geological layers known as the Morrison Formation.
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Jurassic National Monument | |
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![]() Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry Visitor Center | |
Map of Utah | |
Location | Emery County, Utah |
Nearest city | Cleveland |
Coordinates | 39.32282°N 110.68951°W / 39.32282; -110.68951 |
Governing body | Bureau of Land Management |
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Designated | 1965 |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Jurassic_National_Monument_2019.jpg/640px-Jurassic_National_Monument_2019.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Buildings_Jurassic_National_Monument.jpg/640px-Buildings_Jurassic_National_Monument.jpg)
Well over 15,000 bones have been excavated from this Jurassic excavation site and there are many thousands more awaiting excavation and study. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in October 1965.[1] The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 12, 2019, named it as a national monument.[2]
All of these bones, belonging to different species, are found disarticulated and indistinctly mixed together. It has been hypothesised that this strong concentration of mixed fossilised bones is due to a "predator trap", but any kind of definitive scientific consensus has not yet been reached and debate continues to the present day.