New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

In July of 1941, J. W. Stovall of the University of Oklahoma, with graduate student Don Savage and undergraduate Wann Langston, Jr., traveled to the San Juan Basin of New Mexico to collect fossils for the University of Oklahoma Museum. While on this trip they discovered the remains of the largest and most complete specimen of Pentaceratops sternbergi (OMNH 10165), a ceratopsian dinosaur that is probably endemic to the late Campanian of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico. This particular specimen is one of the largest ceratopsian dinosaurs ever collected (with a reconstructed skull length of over three meters) and the specimen is on permanent display at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, Oklahoma (OMNH). The specimen is certainly from either the Fruitland or Kirtland formations and is considered part of the Hunter Wash local fauna. Locating the historic 1941 Pentaceratops quarry will help to better constrain the geologic age of this particular specimen. Unfortunately, the precise location of this important find has been lost. Dr. Langston, documented the find to the best of his recollection, but the site has not been relocated. Evidence suggests that it is within an area now included in the Fossil Forest Research Natural Area near Coal Creek. However, some have suggested that the quarry may not be in the documented region, but rather north of this area, within what is now the Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness Area. In April of 2009 Nick Longrich and ReBecca Hunt-Foster attempted to relocate the 1941 University of Oklahoma Pentaceratops Quarry, following the notes of Wann Langston, Jr. and archival photographs from the OMNH. While the location of this historic quarry was not certainly located during the course of this particular search, several other previous quarries were identified.