Robert Joseph Gay is an American Paleontologist known for his work in the Chinle and Kayenta Formations in the southwest

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. He is known for his studies of cannibalism in ''

Coelophysis ''Coelophysis'' ( Traditional English pronunciation of Latin, traditionally; or , as heard more commonly in recent decades) is a genus of coelophysid Theropoda, theropod dinosaur that lived Approximation, approximately 215 to 201.4 million y ...

'' and

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

in ''

Dilophosaurus ''Dilophosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of theropod dinosaurs that lived in what is now North America during the Early Jurassic, about 186 million years ago. Three skeletons were discovered in northern Arizona in 1940, and the two best preserv ...

,'' and his fieldwork in Bears Ears National Monument. In 2017, he and coauthors formally published their study on the oldest known dinosaur from Utah, a

neotheropod Theropoda (; from ancient Greek , (''therion'') "wild beast"; , (''pous, podos'') "foot"">wiktionary:ποδός"> (''pous, podos'') "foot" is one of the three major groups (clades) of dinosaurs, alongside Ornithischia and Sauropodomor ...

that is likely an animal similar to ''Coelophysis''. Robert Gay is currently the Curator of Education at the Idaho Museum of Natural History

Discoveries

In the summer of 2015, Gay discovered the first occurrence of ''

Crosbysaurus ''Crosbysaurus'' is a genus of extinct archosauromorph that lived in the Late Triassic of Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah. It is known from the Chinle Formation and Dockum Group rock units from the southwestern United Sta ...

'' from the

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

.Gay, R. J., & Aude, I. S. (2015). The first occurrence of the enigmatic archosauriform Crosbysaurus Heckert 2004 from the Chinle Formation of southern Utah. PeerJ, 3. doi:10.7717/peerj.905 In 2017, Robert Gay and others published their discovery on the oldest known dinosaur from Utah, a small ''

''-like neotheropod from the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation.

Publications and Abstracts

Gay , R. J., Huttenlocker , A. K., Irmis , R.B., Stegner , M.A., & Uglesich , J. (2020). Paleontology of Bears Ears National Monument (Utah, USA): History of exploration, study, and designation. Geology of the Intermountain West, 7, 205-241. Jenkins, Xavier A.; Foster, John R.; Gay, Robert J. First unambiguous dinosaur specimen from the Upper Triassic Chinle formation in Utah. Geology of the Intermountain West, .l. v. 4, p. 231-242, Dec. 2017. ISSN 2380-7601. Gay RJ, Aude IS. (2015). The first occurrence of the enigmatic archosauriform Crosbysaurus Heckert 2004 from the Chinle Formation of southern Utah. Gay, Robert (2001). "New specimens of ''Dilophosaurus wetherilli'' (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of northern Arizona". ''Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists annual meeting volume Mesa, Arizona'' 1: 1. Gay, Robert (2005). "Evidence for sexual dimorphism in the Early Jurassic theropod dinosaur, ''Dilophosaurus'' and a comparison with other related forms In: Carpenter, Ken, ed. The Carnivorous Dinosaurs". ''The Carnivorous Dinosaurs''. Indiana University Press. pp. 277–283. . Gay, R.J. (2001). "An unusual adaptation in the caudal vertebrae of ''Coelophysis bauri'' (Dinosauria: Theropoda)". ''PaleoBios'' 21: 55. Lockley, Martin G.; Gierlinski, Gerard D.; Houck, Karen; Lim, Jong-Deock; Kim, Kyung Soo; Kim, Dal-Yong; Kim, Tae Hyeong; Kang, Seung-Hyeop; Hunt-Foster, ReBecca; Li, Rihui; Chesser, Christopher; Gay, Rob; Dubicka, Zofia; Cart, Ken; Wright, Kristy. 2014 “New Excavations at the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Track Site (Cedar Mountain Formation, Lower Cretaceous) of eastern Utah In Lockley and Lucas, eds., Fossil footprints of western North America. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin no. 62, pp 287–300.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay, Robert J. Living people American paleontologists University of Arizona alumni Year of birth missing (living people)