Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) natural color imagery and structure-from-motion data products collected at the Marsh-Felch Dinosaur Quarry site in Colorado, July 2024

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Uncrewed Systems Office (NUSO) supported the USGS National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program’s Geoheritage Sites of the Nation Project in July of 2024 with the collection of UAS-based high-resolution imagery of the Marsh-Felch Quarry site at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Garden Park Fossil Area. One of the most complete dinosaur skeletons ever unearthed was found here. These discoveries around present-day Garden Park Fossil Area sparked the “Bone Wars” of the late 1800s and inspired the selection of Colorado's state fossil, the Stegosaurus.

Three-dimensional (3D) scan flights were conducted at the fossil site using a Skydio X10 UAS, in which the aircraft autonomously determined where to capture photos to achieve coverage across a volume of interest. The natural color UAS images were processed in photogrammetry software to generate a 3D model of this fossil site for inclusion in the Geoheritage web application. A two-dimensional (2D) mapping flight with the Skydio X10 UAS flown at 300 feet above ground level was also conducted to capture the topography of the surrounding area.