Judith River Dinosaur Institute

24/09/2024

They say that all good things must come to an end. For over 30 years the Judith River Dinosaur Institute has offered the ultimate dinosaur dig experience. The 2025 digs will be our final season. We're only doing 2 weeks so with 30 years of JRDI alum we expect they will fill fast. It is our hope that many of those alum can join us. Please share this announcement with all your JRDI friends.

You can reserve your spot at www.montanadinosaurdigs.com

Thanks, Nate

14/07/2024

On 17 July, as part of the annual Geek Week, Sotheby’s New York is thrilled to present “Apex,” the first instance of an auction house working to bring a dino...

21/01/2023

https://montanadinosaurdigs.com/

We are happy to announce the launch of the new Judith River Dinosaur Institute website! A celebration of 30 years of great discoveries and people. It took over a year of development and refinement by ourselves and the crack team at Rebel River Marketing. Please check it out and let us know what you think, and be sure to share with your friends and family.

Start your adventure here....

For 30+ years the Judith River Dinosaur Institute has brought together earth science pros and amateurs with a fascination for dinosaurs.

18/03/2022

Our 2022 Fossil Preparation Classes are going on until April 1. I'm also working on a rare beauty! This is a caudal vertebrae from a Spinosaurus from Morocco. This is a first for me to be able to study and prepare material from this strange dinosaur. Look how long the neural spine is on this beast and its a short one too, from the back of the sail over the tail. We're also preparing a cast of the skull of an adult Spinosaurus four feet long. Cool stuff going on here at the Dino Lab.

07/02/2022

Here's a photo of the same femur during excavation. Often when you have swelling bentonitic clays in the ground around the bones you get fracturing and separation of the bones as you see with this femur. Get back to work Evan.

05/02/2022

Reassembling a camarasaurid femur in the lab. It's amazing how you can build a tall heavy bone standing up! This bone weighs over 250 pounds. You can help us excavate bones like these by joining one of our summer dig programs in 2022.

27/10/2021

Ever wonder what it's like to discover and uncover the back plate of a Stegosaurus? That's right......this is one of the large plates that stick up out of the Stegosaur's back! These folks did and possibly you can too! Our 2022 dig programs are filling fast. Sign up now and become a team member this summer and be a part of all the new discoveries.

14/10/2021

04/09/2021

The Jurassic Park Hilton is open for business for the digs next summer! SORRY NO VACANCY. Speaking of no vacancies, next summer's digs are filling up fast so you better keep and eye on the occupancy numbers on the "Join A Dig" page on the website. For example week 2 is already over 70% full.

13/08/2021

The night skies at our base camp are amazing! From the Milky Way to shooting stars and yes........even the northern lights for your entertainment. Come join us for an adventure of a lifetime.

11/08/2021

The crew taking a cat nap after lunch under a plaster jacket full of sauropod bones. Okay everybody! Back to work!

05/08/2021

Hey, we know how to have fun digging dinosaurs too! Join us next summer.

03/08/2021

Hey everyone, check out what everyday people are saying about our dig programs. Enjoy!

Ever wonder what it was like to dig dinosaurs?This short program presents some real dinosaur diggers telling you about the experience in their own words.

29/07/2021

2021 New Discoveries!
Camptosaur in Quarry 4 and Stegosaurus in Quarry 6

29/07/2021

2021 Field Report – August 1, 2021
The 2021 season was really good! Old friends returning and new friends made. Teams focused their efforts on exploration of new sites and did it ever pay off! We found 3 new quarries! One of the new sites produced stegosaur material, and another a large sauropod and the third the remains of Camptosaurus. This season was very unusual weather wise. Montana has experienced one of the hottest and driest summers on record. We were all smart and took advantage of the cool temps during the morning and evenings to work in the new sites. Now that these new quarries are established, I can’t wait to see what the winters snow and the spring erosion will show us. Yes, it was indeed hard work - something you will never see on a TV documentary. With that kind of effort…comes great rewards! Kudos everyone!
After doing these dig programs for 26 years one cannot help but think about the people you keep meeting and the many friends you make. The 2021 field season was made wonderfully possible by many of those people. To my dear friends and hosts for 18 summers Dave and Rosalie, thank you for sharing such a wondrous place. My friends in many geologic adventures Mark, Debbie and my dear Janet, thanks to you all for being there for me. You guys keep our prehistoric adventure all going.
Finally, I want to thank all of the 2021 team members that traveled from all points to have a chance at discovery with us. I hope that you went away a little more knowledgeable and having even more questions. Hope to see you again.
What’s Up for the Summer of 2022?
Bones!!! We’ll continue excavation of the 3 new quarries 4, 5 and 6 in 2021 to see what they will give up. The bones showing in quarry 5 look to be a large sauropod. We’ve jacketed and removed the skull and neck of a Camptosaurus in quarry 4, a trophy discovery due to its rarity. We will continue more excavation there and hopefully discover more of its body.

Below is a picture of our new Quarry 5 with the remains of a large Sauropod!