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Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 - Hanging out in Ouray | Fossil Hike | Perimeter Trail
Initially, our interest in this particular hiking location was spawned by a story we heard at the Ouray Hotel.
Someone told us that there are 'dinosaur tracks' up here somewhere.
He gave us specific directions so that we would be able to hike right to the exact spot.
Now....knowing what I know about the geologic formations that make up the canyon walls surrounding Ouray
(here's a small snippet of a geologic map of the area, and here's the key),
I already knew that it was next to impossible that there could actually be dinosaur tracks in the area...
Dinosaurs evolved ~230 million years ago during the middle of the Triassic period,
whereas the latest formation in the area where the directions lead us to(and I know we found the right spot)
is part of the 'Hermosa Group', an assemblage of sedimentary layers deposited during the Pennsylvanian period,
which ended ~40 million years before the beginning of the Triassic period
(and ~60 million years before the advent of the dinosaurs).
However, I'm always up for an adventure, and I figured it couldn't hurt to humor him and go up there to check it out;
especially since it's so easy to get to (just walked a few minutes away from where we parked).
Here's one of the things that was described to me as a 'dinosaur track'...
Here are some products of non-biological weathering/erosion that were described as 'claw marks'.
JammerGirl standing next to a large outcrop of the Pennsylvanian limestone...
The problem here (with the idea of there being dinosaur tracks) isn't just that these sediments were deposited
more than 60 million years prior to the time when dinosaurs came into existence(as if that weren't enough).
Beyond all of that, these sediments were quite clearly marine in origin; meaning that they were laid down
somewhere in an ocean or sea, and not anywhere near a place where dinosaurs could have been wondering around,
even if they had been present (which they weren't yet).
Evidence for these sediments being of marine origin is in some of the following images...
...lots and lots of corals of various kinds (which only grow in sea water).
There were also brachiopods (clearly, marine-only), marine gastropods, crinoids (marine-only echinoderms)
and other coral reef type organisms.
So, no dinosaurs, but definitely a lot of cool, little fossils, and I'm glad we found out about this little spot.
I will probably take other people up to this spot during Summit week over the coming years.
Kids would love it....crawling all over the rocks, looking for fossils.... and the overlook of town is fun for everyone.
After this little paleontology investigation, we went for a hike on the portion of the 'Perimeter Trail' that borders the opposite side of town.
See some images from that hike on thenext page -->
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 - Hanging out in Ouray | Fossil Hike | Perimeter Trail
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