Students from Sul Ross State University’s Geology program conducted field research in March within Big Bend National Park, where they retrieved a large vertebra belonging to Alamosaurus, a long-necked dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period.
Led by Dr. Jesse Kelsch, assistant professor, and Dr. Thomas Shiller, associate professor, the trip included students from Stratigraphic Analysis and Structural Geology courses. Their research focused on structural and stratigraphic analysis of Cretaceous to Eocene rock formations, along with the fossil recovery.
Alamosaurus, the largest known land-dwelling animal to have lived in North America, is known from fragmentary and poorly preserved fossils found in the Big Bend region. The specimen retrieved during this trip is part of one of the most complete skeletons from the area, originally documented by University of Texas researchers in the 1970s.
Dr. Shiller and students previously recovered associated vertebrae from the same quarry. Those fossils are now under study in the Sul Ross paleontology lab.
For more information on the university’s Geology program, visit www.sulross.edu/geology.
