Tracks in Deep Time: The St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm

by Jerald D. Harris, Andrew R. C. Milner

In February 2000, while excavating his property in St. George, Utah, Sheldon Johnson turned over a piece of ground and discovered a fully preserved dinosaur footprint. That track was the first of many fossils to be uncovered. Five years later, the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm was established to preserve one of the richest and oldest dinosaur-age fossil sites in Utah.

Tracks in Deep Time presents, for the first time, an engaging, thoroughly readable account of the history, geology, and paleontology of this important site. Two hundred million years ago, Lake Dixie covered the site. Within its waters and along its shores, a diverse ecosystem of dinosaurs, early crocodylians, fishes, plants, and other organisms thrived, leaving behind thousands of footprints and other fossils preserved in layers of rock. Unusual fossils found here include the world’s largest collection of tracks left by swimming dinosaurs and one of only six traces known to have been made by a sitting, meat-eating dinosaur. With approachable text and lavish, full-color photographs and illustrations, Jerald Harris and Andrew Milner describe how geologists and paleontologists have painstakingly reconstructed a vivid “snapshot” of life from the Early Jurassic epoch. 

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2015

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 28 of 2020: Tracks in Deep Time - The St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm by Jerald D. Harris and Andrew R.C. Milner (2015, University of Utah Press, 99 p.).

As the byline states, this book is about the finds at the Johnson Farm involving dinosaur trackways (mostly), but the book details others finds of body and trace fossils of other vertebrates and invertebrates.

The book is organized in 5 chapters with an Introduction, Geology, Trace Fossils, Body Fossils, and Lake Dixie. I found the book to be a wonderful introduction to geology and paleontology. The final chapter of the paleoenvironment of Lake Dixie was an excellent reconstruction using the geology and the whole suite of trace and body fossils.

I've been going to the museum built over the track site for a few years (the site was discovered by Sheldon Johnson in 2000 and the museum was built in 2005). The authors are the director of paleontology at Dixie State University (Harris) and the site paleontologist and city paleontologist (Milner), at least at the time the book was published.

This lavishly illustrated book is a fantastic introduction to geology and paleontology and paleogeographic/paleoenvironment reconstruction...AND the cost of this book at $10.95 is a bargain at twice the price.

I highly recommend this volume and the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site.

[Jennifer Crowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise summary of the exceptional St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm. This rare site in southern Utah provides a phenomenal glimpse into an Early Jurassic lake ecosystem full of dinosaurs, fish, plants, and invertebrates. This book does an amazing job of describing geology and paleontology topics for anyone of any background to understand.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for visiting St. George and the Dinosaur Museum at the Johnson Farm. Well-written!