Information for the Traveling Golfer

What We Have Seen Along the Way

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In February 2000, Sheldon Johnson discovered numerous dinosaur tracks preserved at the bottom of a 3-footthick sandstone layer overlying a mudstone layer on his farm within the St. George city limits. Because of Johnson’s public-mindedness, scientists from the Utah Geological Survey, University of Utah, and University of Colorado have been able to collect significant data from this important locality in the Whitmore Point Member of the Moenave Formation. Ongoing research has resulted in the identification of a number of different track makers, fossil plants, invertebrates, fossil fish, and beautifully preserved sedimentary structures that record a shallow, saline lake and its margin during Early Jurassic time (about 200 million years ago) in southwestern Utah.

The majority of tracks preserved at the base of the track-bearing sandstone are natural casts of the ichnogenus, or track name, Eubrontes and are from 13 to 18 inches long. These three-toed tracks are thought to represent a dinosaur similar to the crested, meat-eater Dilophosaurus known from the overlying Kayenta Formation. Some of the features are remarkably well preserved and include exquisite examples of the foot pads, claw marks, dew claws, and in one example, detailed skin impressions.

Other discoveries that make the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm unique include the largest and best preserved collection of dinosaur swim tracks, a rare sitting impression of a large meat-eating dinosaur, and the unusual association of tracks, traces and actual bones found in close proximity to each other.

The St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm is home to exceptionally well-preserved dinosaur tracks, some displaying skin impressions. These tracks, along with hundreds of fossil fish, plants, rare dinosaur remains, invertebrates traces and important sedimentary structures, show evidence that this site was produced along the western edge of a large, Early Jurassic (age between 195-198 million years ago) freshwater lake named Lake Dixie.