Exploring Colorado in the Late Cretaceous: When the Mountains Met the
Sea
March 24-25, 2001

Imagine the cries of pterosaurs soaring overhead. Giant reptiles
breaking the surface of a long-gone sea and footprints left by
dinosaurs in moist sand along its shore. Founders Symposium 2001 took
participants for a walk along a Cretaceous beach on the ancient Western
Interior Seaway. A day with 14 speakers was followed by a field trip to
visit the Cretaceous Seaway through the wonders of present-day
interpretative geology. The event was held at the Colorado School of
Mines in Golden, Colorado, and nearby geologic points of interest.

2001 Speakers

Robert Weimer, Ph.D.
Colorado School of Mines, Emeritus
Geology of Colorado in the Late Cretaceous

Neal Larson
Black Hills Institute
The Range Zone Ammonites of the Late Cretaceous Pierre Shale and Fox
Hills Formation

Bette Otto-Bliesner, Ph.D.
National Center for Atmospheric Research
Late Cretaceous Climates

Ned Friedman, Ph.D.
University of Colorado, Boulder
New View on the Plants that Took Over the Cretaceous: the Mysterious
Rise of Flowering Plants

Kirk Johnson, Ph.D.
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Vegetables on the Beach: An Overview of Plant Life on the Margin of the
Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway

Dena Meade-Hunter
Western Interior Paleontological Society
Going Buggy in the Cretaceous

Michon Scott
National Snow and Ice Data Center
Soaring Over a Cretaceous Sea: Birds and Pterosaurs fo the Western
Interior

Jay Lillegraven, Ph.D.
University of Wyoming
Mammals

Steven D. Jorgensen
Western Interior Paleontological Society
Tepee Buttes in the Pierre Shale of Colorado and South Dakota

Ken Carpenter, Ph.D.
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Marine Vertebrates

Linda Soar
Western Interior Paleontological Society
Benthic Paleoecology of the Pierre Shale

Joanna Wright, Ph.D.
University of Colorado, Denver
Fossil Vertebrate Tracks from the Western Interior Seaway of North
America in the Late Cretaceous

James Kirkland, Ph.D.
Utah Geological Survey
The Western Shore of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway: Dinosaur
Faunas of the Colorado Plateau

Robert Raynolds, Ph.D.
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Closing Remarks