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Open letter from the Dinosaur Fund

Dear Dinosaur Lover:

A unique and scientifically significant natural area is in danger of being lost to industrial development in the next few months if no action is taken to acquire and annex it to the extant acreage of the existing dinosaur park.

Historically and more recently, since the late 1980s, a small region, less than ten acres of land, has been the only regularly producing area for dinosaur fossils from the Early Cretaceous east of the Mississippi River.

The site has given us in the last ten years:

1. several new species of dinosaur
2. the first articulated dinosaur bones of Early Cretaceous times from east of the Mississippi River
3. a nearly complete articulated giant specimen of a new species of land turtle
4. the largest dinosaur bone known from the east of the Mississippi River
5. the first mammals from the Early Cretaceous east of the Mississippi River
6. the first evidence of a horned dinosaur east of the Mississippi River which is also close in age to the earliest known member of the horned dinosaur group.

Moreover, the site is historically a portion of the original location from which the first dinosaur fossils from the State of Maryland were found in 1858 the same year of the first recognized find of a dinosaur skeleton in North America. That dinosaur in addition to being Maryland's official State Dinosaur, Astrodon johnstoni, is also the first sauropod dinosaur recognized from North America.

The site continues to be and will continue to be an enormously important dinosaur resource as long as it is saved from destruction by industrial development.

The danger and the opportunity, simply put, is this, for most of the twentieth century the land on which the dinosaur fossils are found has been privately owned and operated as a brick clay quarry. Now, July 2001, brick making will cease and the whole site including the limited portion which produces the dinosaur fossils will be put up for sale as an industrial park. Currently the entire site is zoned for industrial use making what would be rather worthless land inordinately expensive. The present owners, to date, have resisted all appeals to their public spirited conscience to donate the few dinosaur producing acres to the adjacent dinosaur park land.

When these few acres are joined to the existing dinosaur park land, they will provide enormous benefits.

1. There will be no need to clear any forested land, a current requirement as all the parkland is at present forested. This site is already excavated down to the dinosaur fossil layers.
2. There will be no need for soil borings in a blind effort to locate the dinosaur fossil beds. The site is clearly visible and delineated on the surface now.
3. The park land can commence immediate operations as the dinosaur resource is already exposed for investigation and discovery.

Ask yourself do we really need yet another warehouse at the expense of the loss of this natural treasure trove of dinosaur fossils?

Sincerely,

Peter M. Kranz, Ph.D.
President
Dinosaur Fund

P.S. You may wish to consult our web site for lots of additional information about the Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of the National Capital Region as well as educational programs currently in place.

The address is: www.dinosaurfund.org.

How You Can Help

J. Charles Fox
Secretary
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Annapolis, MD

Dear Mr. Fox,

As you are aware, the single most important dinosaur fossil site east of the Mississippi River is threatened with imminent destruction. The site located just south of Laurel, Maryland is adjacent to the existing land set aside for the "Dinosaur Park."

The property in question is so scientifically and publicly valuable as it has been and continues to be the site that has produced the most and greatest diversity of dinosaur fossils east of the Mississippi for the past 15 years. Several new dinosaur types have been found there as well as thousands of other fossils.

Sites producing abundant dinosaur fossils east of the Mississippi River are extremely rare and consequently important. Annexing this valuable site to the existing park will enhance it and enable it to begin early operations.

I urge you to acquire and protect this important site.

Sincerely,

(Please include your address here)