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UW-Oshkosh professor has new hypothesis about dinosaur fossils in Utah

Posted at 7:41 PM, Jul 18, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-19 07:22:10-04

A UW-Oshkosh professor thinks he's solved a century's old problem.

Dinosaur fossils have been excavated at the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry in central Utah since the 1920s. The question that has stumped experts, however, is how did they get there?

Josh Peterson, geology professor at UW-Oshkosh, has a theory.

"Our hypothesis now is that this was a body of water that was seasonal, it was an emphemeral pond. during the wet season when the rains would come all these dinosaur carcasses wash in and start decomposing; during the dry season some of those bones would lay at the surface and break down into millions of these little fragments," said Peterson.

The professor will present his findings during a TEDx talk in November.