The scientists at Dinosaur National Monument love what they do and will always be sure the treasures found there are properly named. A few years ago, the sandstone identified from the late Triassic/early Jurassic era was changed from being called the Glen Canyon Sandstone to the Nugget Sandstone. Well they’ve done it again! Dakota Sandstone has been renamed the Naturita Formation. Dinosaur National Monument updated the public and shared that Dakota Sandstone was named for Dakota City, Nebraska on the east side of the Western Interior Seaway. Those sediments originated from what were then uplands in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri. Here, on what was the west side of that Cretaceous seaway, the sediments originated from the mountains on the Nevada-Utah border. The two formations are different but have been called by the same name for a long time. The Monument announcement explained that they did that because upon close inspection, that sandstone showed more in common with the Nugget than with anything else in the Glen Canyon Group.
