Specimens continued to show in record abundance, most of them
duplicating the earlier finds of _Diplodocus_ and _Stegosaurus_. But
there were new forms, too. One of them was a _Camptosaurus_, the first
to be found at the quarry. It was a modified biped of plant-eating
habits, a little more than 10 feet long, with its skull and part of the
tail missing.
By 1921 the deposit had been worked to a length of 400 feet east and
west, and to a depth of about 60 feet. Rock was being stripped from the
quarry face at the rate of approximately 20,000 cubic feet annually, and
the chisels of Douglass and his men had penetrated to the richest
bone-bearing zone.
In the following year they uncovered one of the most perfect skeletons
of a dinosaur ever exhumed. It was a small sauropod named, _Camarasaurus
lentus_. When found, its 17-foot vertebral column was practically
intact, except for a few tail segments. The skull was in place, and the
limbs in their approximate positions.
It was an important find scientifically. The position of the limbs gave
clear evidence of the manner in which these animals carried themselves.
The articulation between the thigh bone and the pelvis showed
conclusively that sauropods walked with their legs more-or-less vertical
to the body and not with the bowed-out crawling posture habitual to
lizards, as many scientists had supposed. The skull was the finest known
for this genus. It was complete even to the sclerotic ring—a complex of
bony plates which surrounded the living eye and protected it.
As exhibit material it was without rival. It was mounted as found, lying
on its side, the bones fixed in death in the matrix in which they had
been preserved—a fitting climax to the 13 consecutive years that had
seen an unknown sandstone ridge in Utah become Dinosaur National
Monument.
In those 13 years the Carnegie Museum had taken from the quarry parts of
300 dinosaur specimens, 2 dozen of which were mountable skeletons. Ten
different species were represented. It was the best collection of Middle
Mesozoic monsters in the world.
In the years that immediately followed, the still-rich “dig” was worked
by two other organizations—the Smithsonian Institution and the
University of Utah.
[Illustration: _Camarasaurus_ SKELETON—THE MOST PERFECT REMOVED FROM
THE QUARRY. (COURTESY, CARNEGIE MUSEUM.)]
But finally the museums had reaped their harvest. The fruits of the
harvest had gone to enrich many of their finest displays. However, still
buried in the untouched part of the wall were the remains of still more
dinosaurs. All that was needed was to reveal them. The 67° tilt of the
rock made it a perfect exhibit face. Strip off the overlying layers,
expose the skeletons, and relief them in place. This had been Douglass’s
idea as far back as 1915, when he recorded it in his diary.