The Bighorn Basin Dinosaur Project (BBDP) is a paleontological research and education group focusing on the

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

ecosystems of the

Bighorn Basin The Bighorn Basin is a plateau region and intermontane basin, approximately 100 miles (160 km) wide, in north-central Wyoming in the United States. It is bounded by the Absaroka Range on the west, the Pryor Mountains on the north, the Bigho ...

in northern Wyoming and southern Montana, U.S.A. BBDP is headquartered in the Bureau of Natural History at the

New Jersey State Museum The New Jersey State Museum is located at 195-205 West State Street in Trenton, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The museum's collections include natural history specimens, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, and cultural history and fin ...

(NJSM) in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County. It was the federal capital, capital of the United States from November 1 until D ...

, United States, but has welcomed increasing research and educational collaborations with

paleontologists Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

from the

Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natur ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, the

Wyoming Dinosaur Center The Wyoming Dinosaur Center is located in Thermopolis, Wyoming and is one of the few dinosaur museums in the world to have excavation sites within driving distance. The museum displays the Thermopolis Specimen of ''Archaeopteryx'', which is one of ...

Thermopolis, Wyoming Thermopolis is the county seat and most populous town in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town population was 2,725. Thermopolis, Greek for "hot city", is home to numerous natural hot springs, in which ...

, and The Woods Project of

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

History

The New Jersey State Museum’s activities in the Bighorn Basin of northern Wyoming and southern Montana continues a long tradition of paleontological research in the region by some of the science's founding fathers in North America, including many with ties to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

William Berryman Scott William Berryman Scott (February 12, 1858 – March 29, 1947) was an American vertebrate paleontologist, authority on mammals, and principal author of the White River Oligocene monographs. He was a professor of geology and paleontology at Pr ...

, Francis Spier, and Henry Fairfield Osborne all visited the region in the 1880s, though these expeditions were largely unsuccessful. W. B. Scott's student and successor, William J. Sinclair, first teamed with

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

paleontologist Walter W. Granger in 1910 which resulted in numerous, far more successful expeditions to the region. Together, Sinclair and Granger established the Bighorn Basin as a significant region for

Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three g ...

fossils. Sinclair continued his expeditions into the region through the 1920s with additional Princeton students, including Glenn Jepsen, who dedicated the remainder of his professional career to the study of

Paleocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), ...

mammals of the Bighorn Basin. Jepsen, in turn, introduced many more Princeton paleontology students to the region, including present-day paleontologists Philip D. Gingerich, Barbara Grandstaff, and David Parris. David Parris has continued the tradition, spending much of his nearly 50-year career studying the fossil ecosystems of the northern Bighorn Basin, almost entirely as a paleontologist in the Bureau of Natural History at the New Jersey State Museum. As the Curator of Natural History at the NJSM, David Parris began leading students, colleagues, and volunteers to the region on paleontological expeditions to the Bighorn Basin annually from 2001 through 2010. Jason Schein, Assistant Curator of Natural History at the New Jersey State Museum, has continued the efforts, leading the annual expeditions since 2011, with Parris taking more of an advisory role in the expeditions and research projects. In 2015, the NJSM’s research efforts in the Bighorn Basin were formalized under the name "Bighorn Basin Dinosaur Project." The field headquarters for the BBDP are located at the Yellowstone-Bighorn Research Association in

Red Lodge, Montana Red Lodge is a city and county seat of Carbon County, Montana, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,257. History On September 17, 1851, the United States government signed a treaty with the Crow Nation, con ...

. The stated research goals of the BBDP are to study and understand, to the greatest extent possible, the ecosystems that existed throughout that region during the Mesozoic and the early Cenozoic eras.

References

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External links

Home page

Experiment.com

Yellowstone-Bighorn Research Association

Geekadelphia Article
Paleontological institutions and organizations