The colorful, banded rocks of the Morrison Formation in eastern Utah are famous for spectacular dinosaurs, but there is much more to this ancient ecosystem and these same rocks hold secrets to the beginnings of our own branch of the Tree of Life. The Cisco Mammal Quarry was discovered in 2015 by a team of paleontologists from the University of Louisville and the University of Oklahoma, and each season of excavation (supported in large part by the Canyonlands Natural History Association) has uncovered beautiful fossils of tiny creatures: mouse-sized early mammals, palm-sized lizards and flying reptiles, short-snouted crocodilians smaller than a house cat, and more.

 The rock is hard and efforts are labor-intensive; the fossils are well preserved but jumbled in three dimensions, and can be difficult to recognize in the field. Back at the lab, fossils are being freed from their rock through a combination of delicate needlework under magnification and high-tech 3D CT scanning, and we are only just beginning to understand these scientific treasures. The project has served to train undergraduate and graduate students in field and lab methodology, and has resulted in scientific publications of important specimens that shed light not only on surprising new creatures, but the surprising features they possessed.

Future work at the Cisco Mammal Quarry will substantially improve our understanding of the ways our earliest ancestors explored their world, found food and avoided becoming food, and ultimately gave rise to the lineage leading to the amazing diversity of mammals alive today.

Dr. Brian M. Davis, Principal investigator in the Discovery Pool Project has published two papers on his research at the Cisco Mammal Quarry. For more in depth information on his fascinating discoveries follow the links below.

Moab Information Center 2022 Lecture Series

May 26 ~ Walt Dabney ~ Public Lands: Where, Why and How?   ~ Join former National Park Superintendent Walt Dabney for answers to these questions and more: Where did our Public Lands come from? What was the effect of the Homestead Act and the Railroad Act? How were National Parks and Forests established? Why are these lands held “in common”, so important to us today? Past and current public lands issues are addressed in this hour long presentation. Questions and discussion time to follow.

June 2 ~ Brian Davis ~ Tiny Fossils and the Big Picture: Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs ~ Every kid knows that dinosaurs are the biggest, fiercest, and most inspiring creatures to ever have walked the Earth, but they are only part of the story. The ancient world was a diverse and vibrant place, and dinosaurs lived alongside a cast that included the earliest mammals. Come and learn what our ancestors were like and what their tiny fossils reveal about their lives: while most survived by scurrying between the feet of dinosaurs, others swam, glided, and even had dinosaurs for lunch! (Discovery Pool)

June 16 ~ Robert Anderson ~ Founding Fathers: The Creation of Canyonlands National Park ~ The vision of Charlie Steen, Bates Wilson and Stewart Udall paved the way for the creation of Canyonlands National Park. Charlie Steen represents the Atomic Energy Commission who provided access to the White Rim Sandstone via the White Rim Road. Bates Wilson represents the vision of having a National Park that would protect the confluence. Stewart Udall provided the political support needed in order to push the idea of a National Park through Congress. Join Park Ranger, Robert Anderson, as he discusses each of these men and their vision for Canyonlands National Park.

June 23 ~ Mallory Sandoval Lambert ~ Ecological Interactions between Mountain Goats and American Pikas ~ The southern limit of the natural range of mountain goats is in Idaho, whereas American pikas occur naturally as far south as New Mexico. However, the  mountain goat range has been extended southwards with the establishment of translocated subpopulations in Utah. These mountain goats now share habitat with pikas, providing an opportunity to study potential ecological interactions between these two alpine specialists. Join Mallory Sandoval Lambert as she talks about how her research is   exploring this previously unstudied system through field-based experimentation, with a focus on the La Sal Mountains in southern Utah. (Discovery Pool)