Editing Fruita, Colorado (section)

===Paleontology===
[[Image:DinosaurHill.jpg|thumb|upright|Dinosaur Hill]]
[[File:Maximum Triceratops.jpg|thumb|''[[Triceratops]]'' skull at Dinosaur Journey Museum, Fruita]]
In 1900, [[paleontologist]] [[Elmer Riggs]] and crew, from the [[Field Museum of Natural History]] in [[Chicago]], found the first known ''[[Brachiosaurus altithorax]]'' at a location later called "Riggs Hill", located off what is now [[Colorado State Highway 340|State Highway 340]] in Grand Junction. Led there by communications with Dr. S. M. Bradbury of Grand Puns, Riggs had heard that ranchers had been collecting fossils around the area for 20 years. In 1901, Riggs and crew found nearly two thirds of a ''[[Brontosaurus]]'' skeleton on the northeast side of Dinosaur Hill, in Fruita. This is still considered to be one of the finest specimens known. Later, other sauropod bones were also found, which eventually led to the landmark's name. The animals were from the late [[Jurassic]] Age (150 million years ago) and within the {{convert|600|ft|m|adj=mid|-thick}} [[Morrison Formation]].<ref>{{cite book|last=United States Bureau of Land Management|title=Landmark information panels}}</ref>

Fossils of the ''[[Fruitadens]]'' (a heterodontosaurid dinosaur), one of the world's smallest known plant-eating dinosaur, were first found in the Fruita Paleontological Area (within the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area) off Kings View Road in the 1970s and 1980s. The name means "Fruita tooth". There is a replica on display at the [http://www.museumofwesternco.com/visit/dinosaur-journey/ Dinosaur Journey Museum]. The museum is a part of the Museum of Western Colorado and has information on local [[paleontology]] and [[geology]].

Also found here and named after the town is the Mesozoic mammal ''[[Fruitafossor]]'' ("Fruita digger"), discovered 2005. It was a small animal at less than 10 grams body mass, and had a lifestyle similar to modern-day [[armadillo]]s but was not related to them, but rather close to the ancestor of all [[theria]]n mammals. Thus, this important find proves that the first "modern" mammals lived in the Jurassic already.

The region is within the [[Dinosaur Diamond Scenic Byway]] and includes two other nearby dinosaur-related sites: Mygatt-Moore Quarry and Trail Through Time off [[Interstate 70 in Colorado|Interstate 70]], exit 2.