CHAPTER 1 A ROOFED LIZARD In the late 1800s fossil hunter Marshall Felch owned a farm near Cañon City Colorado The farm was part of the Colorado The farm was part of the Morrison Formation This area contained Morrison Formation This area contained many fossils In (cid:141)(cid:143) (cid:9) Felch was digging many fossils In Felch was digging for dinosaur bones in a nearby for dinosaur bones in a nearby quarry when he uncovered part of a skeleton The when he uncovered part of a skeleton The skeleton included large plates and spikes Some of the bones Felch found are part of a skeleton on display at the Yale Peabody Museum 5
It was unlike any dinosaur Felch had seen before MAP OF THE MAP OF THE MAP OF THE MORRISON FORMATION MORRISON FORMATION MORRISON FORMATION BC AB SK MB WA OR ID NV MT WY MORRISON MORRISON FORMATION FORMATION UT Cañon City CO MN IA ND SD NE KS CA AZ NM TX OK 6
In Othniel Charles Marsh read a newspaper article about fossils in Cañon City Marsh was a paleontologist who studied and named new dinosaurs He sent a fossil collector named Benjamin Mudge to Colorado Mudge spoke with Felch and Felch agreed to send the bones to Marsh Felch also continued to dig for fossils He drew a map of the quarry to show where he found them After Felch sent fossils Marsh worked on piecing them together At first Marsh thought the plates covered the dinosaur’s back like a large shell For this reason he named the dinosaur Stegosaurus which means roofed lizard 7
