DENVER -Mary Risser, a 22-year veteran of the National Park Service has been named Superintendent at Dinosaur National Monument, according to Acting Intermountain Region Director Mike Snyder. Risser assumed her new responsibilities effective on August 21,2005.

"Mary has shown that she possesses the intellect, knowledge, and passion to be an effective Superintendent, as exhibited at Golden Spike NHS. I am certain that she will continue on this path of excellence at Dinosaur National Monument," said Acting Intermountain Regional Director Mike Snyder.

Risser began her public service career in 1979, by serving as the Assistant Field Representative for U.S. Senator Richard S. Schweiker. In 1983, she began her National Park Service career in the office of Employee and Labor Relations in the National Capital Region, which Mary Risser includes many of the monuments and parks in the nation's capital.

Since joining the National Park Service, Risser has gained experience in a variety of park operations, including administration, resources management, interpretation, concessions management, accessibility, and park management. After a March ski vacation in Jackson Hole in 1984, she applied for the first job she saw at Grand Teton National Park and by July had moved to there as the secretary for the Resources Management Division. During her six years in the Tetons, she also worked in Interpretation and was detailed into the Concessions Management Office for two summers to concentrate on the quality of the interpretation being provided by concession employees. Risser has also worked in Yosemite, Big Bend and Joshua Tree National Parks before becoming Superintendent at Golden Spike National Historic Site.

"I am honored to have been selected as the Superintendent of Dinosaur National Monument. It truly is one of the little known treasures of the National Park Service," said Risser. "This area enjoys a rich, colorful history and I look forward to learning more about it and working with the park staff and the local residents."

Risser graduated from Slippery Rock State University in Pennsylvania with a Bachelor's Degree in Secondary Education. In her new role as superintendent she will manage 210,278 acres, a staff of approximately 54, and an annual operating budget of more than $2,865,000. The quarry at Dinosaur is the single most important Jurassic dinosaur paleontological site anywhere. The monument also has the most complete stratigraphic geologic record of any park in the National Park System. The varied rock layers have been carved by the Green and Yampa rivers to form vertical canyons 1,000 to 2,000 ft deep.

Rare Skull Sheds New Light on World of Sauropod Dinosaurs
By Dr. Dan Chure, Research Scientist, Dinosaur National Monument

Sauropod dinosaurs, those immense quadrupedal, long-necked, long-tailed, plant-eating beasts known popularly as brontosaurs, are by far the largest animals to have ever walked the earth. Sauropods were immensely successful animals and are one of the longest-lived dinosaur lineages, lasting some 160 million years. Sauropods spread across the world, with their fossils known from all continents except Antarctica.

However, in spite of their popularity with the public and the great scientific interest in sauropods, much remains to be discovered about these huge creatures. One of the major scientific mysteries about sauropods has to do with their skulls. For reasons not well understood, sauropods skulls were often lost soon after death and are rarely found. Of the some 200 species of sauropods which have been named by scientists, less than a dozen have skulls known for them. Many of the sauropod skulls that have been discovered come from the rocks of the Jurassic Period, the middle of the three periods making up the Mesozoic or Age of Reptiles. From the Cretaceous Period, the last of the three periods of the Mesozoic, only four sauropod skulls are known from anywhere in the world. Thus it was an exciting event when one of these rare jewels was found in Dinosaur National Monument two years ago.

The amazingly well preserved skull was found not far from the famous Dinosaur Quarry which is enclosed within the Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument. Currently under study by NPS Research Scientist Dr. Dan Chure, it is the only sauropod skull known from the last 80 million years of the Mesozoic in North America! The skull probably belongs to a species new to science, provides much new data on evolution in sauropod dinosaurs, and is of great interest to scientists around the world.

The site where the skull came from was discovered in 1977, but extensive excavations, done by NPS staff, began only a three years ago. The quarry contains a second, less well preserved, sauropod skull as well as many disarticulated sauropod bones from the backbone and limbs. All these fossils were originally buried in the sediments of a riverbed which has turned into a hard sandstone. Excavation of the bones by paleontology staff members Scott Madsen and Ann Elder, as well as volunteers, is difficult and has required power tools such as rock saws and pneumatic drills, and transporting them back to the laboratory often requires helicopters.

While the hard sandstone has preserved the fossils well, it also makes removing them from the rock a difficult task. Back in the lab at the Quarry Visitor Center, preparation by Park Geologist Scott Madsen has taken several years on some specimens, with much additional work remaining. Nevertheless, the skull at least is out of the rock and‹like all fossils collected here‹will remain in the museum at Dinosaur National Monument, only a few hundred yards from where it was discovered.

The excavations at the quarry will continue for probably another ten years. There is no way to predict what other wonders will be found during these excavations, but it has already produced one of the most sought after kinds of dinosaur fossils ‹ a skull of one of the largest land animals in the history of life.

In addition to this spectacular skull, the Quarry Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument encloses a large quarry containing some 1500 dinosaur bones uncovered but left in-place, just as they were discovered. These bones are from the Jurassic Period, some 20 million years older than the new sauropod skull, but most of them also belong to sauropods, showing that Dinosaur National Monument is indeed a place where giants once walked.