Marjorie Ellen Averett, who died Saturday at age 91 in Grand Junction, enjoyed a serendipitous fling with international attention after discovering what paleontologists initially thought was the first iguanodon found in the Western Hemisphere.
Averett, a round-faced grandmother with a fluff of silver hair and generously sized glasses, was about 100 feet away from her three companions when she noticed some oddly triangular fossils during a hiking trip in 1982. Shiny, with a serrated edge, they resembled shark teeth.
Averett, an amateur rockhound, knew the area was rich with fossils.
She trained her eyes on the ground, walked up the ravine bank and found a jawbone with more of the triangular rocks, which indeed were teeth, embedded in the sandstone.
The rock dated to the upper Jurassic period. The chunk of sandstone surrounding the jawbone was 135 million years old, making her find even more significant, paleontologists said.
Not only was this evidence of the first iguanodon in North America, but also it suggested that iguanodons were 4 million years older than previously thought.
Mainstream and scientific journals throughout the world reported Averett’s find. She was featured in a Spanish newspaper, interviewed by Australian paleontologists.
Averett wrote an account of her experience for the newsletter published by the Museum of Western Colorado, where she volunteered at the paleontology laboratory.
Born January 2, 1914, to Thom as and Lavica Large, she graduated from high school and briefly attended junior college before marrying her first husband, Glenn Betty. He died of stomach cancer.
She married Walter R. Averett in 1963, and worked as a bookkeeper, receptionist and counselor.
In 1977, the Averetts moved to Grand Junction. They spent much of their leisure time on hikes, searching for gems and minerals.
By the mid-1990s, other iguanodon fossils had been discovered in North America, all from the early Cretaceous period. Paleontologists began expressing doubts about the pedigree of Marjorie Averett’s 1982 discovery.
After comparisons with other iguanodon fossils, scientists began calling the fossil a camptosaurus, a vegetarian fairly common during the late Jurassic period.
The retraction got far less attention than the initial announcement, observed Rod Sheets, curator of paleontology at Brigham Young University’s museum of earth sciences.
“I knew Marjorie,” said Sheets, who is from Grand Junction. “She was great. It didn’t bother her to get down and dirty.”
Survivors include her husband, Walter R. Averett of Grand Junction; two grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. Daughter Barbara J. Hendrickson preceded her in death.
A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Church of the Nativity in Grand Junction.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
