Arlington Archosaur Site
ARLINGTON — Geology students and curious folks from the community resumed their search on Saturday at a dinosaur dig.
The group volunteered to help uncover 100 million-year-old fossils.
The site is located in the North Arlington Woodbine Formation and last year's discovery of a crocorama is creating a lot of interest.
Smaller tools are used to find small fossils. These lovers of geology don't want to miss out on discovering remains of an animal more than 100 million years old.
"What we are digging in here is an ancient swamp, or a peat bog. That's why we are finding crocodiles and dinosaurs and turtles, and all these other wonderful animals that you usually associate with more of a swampy environment," said site director, Derek Main.
Main and his crew are still excited about finding a crocorama, a large crocodile skeleton buried beneath this Arlington Archosaur Site.
The 2,000 acres known as the North Arlington Woodbine Formation used to be a coastal ecosystem.
"What we now refer to as the Gulf of Mexico, 100 million years ago extended all the way up through North Texas, all the way up to the Arctic," said Main.
Many of the diggers are geology students from the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Texas at Dallas, coming together for one goal - to help Texans understand what's beneath their feet.
"Half of the Metroplex is sitting on top of these sediments where you can find crocodiles or dinosaurs, and most people don't realize it," Main said. "So next time some guy puts in a pool and they see something popping out of the ground, they should call me!"
Main is an earth science doctoral student at UTA and is studying the remains of the crocorama found last year.
The excavation of the site started in the Spring of 2008 and will continue for some time.
