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Natural color aerial imagery and structure-from-motion data products from Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) 2D Mapping flights at the Marsh-Felch Quarry in Garden Park Fossil Area, Colorado, July 2024

Metadata Updated: November 27, 2025

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 scan with the Skydio X10 UAS flown at 300 feet above ground level was also conducted to capture the topography of the surrounding area. This portion of the data release presents raw natural color images collected during the 2D mapping flights over the fossil site. Over the course of one 21-minute flight, a Skydio X10 UAS with an integrated VT300-Z Narrow sensor mapped a 36,483 square meter area and captured 456 natural color red, green, blue (RGB) photos to achieve 75% overlap and 75% sidelap. The images are provided here in a zip file to facilitate bulk download. Structure-from-motion (SfM) Digital Surface Model (DSM) and Orthomosaic data products were generated by processing these 2D Mapping images in photogrammetry software. These data products are provided here in .tif format zipped with supporting files. These DSM and orthomosaic data products were generated for visualization of the environment surrounding the quarry site.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 27, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 27, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-674f562fd34e09a37b8884a5
Data Last Modified 2024-12-26T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 30c7943e-35d3-4afe-9ff7-eb78d12ca2db
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash cda1aafe02b03c85afd5e0245e471dd5a1339c7cd3d70097ee47a37dc43d2798
Source Schema Version 1.1

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