Denver Basin Project ID: 000419835 Public

2 Media · 2 Specimens · Creator: Lyson, Tyler · Managed by: Lindsay Dougan

The Denver Basin is a basin east of the Colorado Front Range that contains rocks of Cretaceous through Eocene age. It stretches from Fort Collins in the north to Colorado Springs in the south and Limon in the east. The basin contains the K-T boundary and abundant fossils from the time of the dinosaurs and from life after the extinction. Understanding the paleontology of the Denver Basin right here in Colorado is a major ongoing project by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. We collaborate with many local land owners, local municipalities, conservation groups, and the Colorado Department of Transportation to access fossil-rich sites along the Front Range. Our work focuses on understanding the paleoclimate of Colorado, the origin of rainforests, the extinction of plants at the K-T boundary and subsequent recovery, the evolution of modern forests, and the uplift history of the Colorado Rockies. Krause, D.W., Hoffmann, S., Lyson, T.R. et al. New Skull Material of Taeniolabis taoensis (Multituberculata, Taeniolabididae) from the Early Paleocene (Danian) of the Denver Basin, Colorado. J Mammal Evol 28, 1083–1143 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-021-09584-3