Return to the Down's Quarry

The Placerias Quarry outside of St. Johns, Arizona is one of the best known vertebrate fossil localities in the Chinle Formation. The nearby Downs Quarry is not as well known.  Named for the late Will Downs who worked in the area in the 1970s with the Museum of Arizona, the Downs Quarry is just a stones throw from the Placerias Quarry and possibly slightly higher stratigraphically.  Crews from the North Carolina State Museum and Appalachian State University have been working these two sites for five years now and are uncovering a lot of good material.  This is exciting as these quarries have produced a lot of incredible material in the past and seem to still be very productive.  Vince Schneider from the NCSM has a blog posted describing some of the work at the Downs Quarry, which you can read here.