TRAILING EXTINCT ANIMALS IN CENTRAL UTAH AND 

 THE BRIDGER BASIN OF WYOMING 



By C. LEWIS GAZIN 



Assistant Curator, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology 



U. S. National Museum 



Continuing investigations carried on during the field seasons of 

 1937 to 1939, the 1940 Smithsonian Institution expedition in search 

 of fossil vertebrates spent the early part of the summer collecting 

 in the Paleocene and Cretaceous beds of central Utah. The latter and 

 greater part of the season was devoted to middle Eocene beds ex- 

 posed in the Bridger Basin, southwestern Wyoming. 



The party, consisting of George F. Sternberg, Franklin Pearce, 

 and the writer, met in Price, Utah, on June 8. Equipment and sup- 

 plies were assembled and on the following day camp was made in the 

 Manti National Forest about 50 miles southwest of Price, at the 

 same place from which operations were carried on during the previous 

 summer. The fossil localities in the Manti Forest area visited this 

 season are nearly all in Dragon Canyon, and our efforts were directed 

 almost entirely to reexamination of the Paleocene exposures and in 

 quarrying for additional lizard material in the contiguous Cretaceous 

 beds. 



Success was attained in the finding of additional remains of 

 Paleocene mammals, representing a variety of forms. The lizard 

 remains, including several good skeletal portions, were obtained en- 

 tirely from a small patch of Cretaceous rocks in the lower part of 

 the canyon, and represent at least two distinct types, differing 

 considerably in size. 



Having about exhausted for the season the possibilities of further 

 collecting in Dragon Canyon, on July 4 we moved camp to the Bridger 

 Basin in southwestern Wyoming. It was decided to investigate first 

 the badland exposures around Twin Buttes in the eastern part of the 

 basin. It was hoped that camp might be made near a spring, but 

 considerable search and inquiry revealed that the only immediate 

 source of water was located high on the north end of the mountain 

 at a point very difficult to reach with a car. A dry camp was made 

 on the west slope of the northerly butte, and water was hauled 

 from the town of Green River. Fossil materials in general proved to 

 be scattered and somewhat scarce on the west side, except for a 

 concentration of relatively small forms in a white layer about half- 



