A new crocodile specimen from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation is the same age as our Diplodocus and Camptosaurus mounts. It represents a carcass that was stranded on an ancient beach and quickly buried by sand to remain intact. A cast of the articulated skeleton in it’s “death pose” was made in the museum lab prior to preparing the bones. The cast is now available as an exact copy of the original to be used for exhibit or exchange with other museums.

As a new research challenge the skeleton of Goniopholis will provide new knowledge about” 1) The skeleton itself; 2) The environment in which it lived; and 3) Events that changed it from a living crocodile to a fossilized skeleton during the past 150 million years.
– Bruce R. Erickson, Fitzpatrick Chair of Paleontology