Utah announces ‘major dinosaur fossil discovery’ (AP)
The Bureau of Land Management announced the find Monday, calling the quarry near Hanksville “a major dinosaur fossil discovery.”
An cut revealed at least four sauropods, that are long-necked, long-tailed plant-eating dinosaurs, and two carnivorous ones, according to the bureau. It may have also uncovered an herbivorous stegosaurus.
Animal burrows and petrified tree trunks 6 feet in diameter were found nearby. The site doesn’t contain any one new species but offers scientists the chance to learn more about the ecology of that time, said Scott Foss, a BLM paleontologist.
The fossilized dinosaurs are from the same late Jurassic period because those at Dinosaur National Monument, which straddles the Utah-Colorado state method, and the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry near Price.
It could subsist a decade or so before the full importance of the Hanksville quarry is known, Foss said. “It does be delivered of the in posse to match the other major quarries in Utah,” he declared.
The site, roughly 50 yards wide by 200 yards long, was excavated by the agency of a team from the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Ill. Museum officials visited the site for about a week last summer and returned this year for a three-week cutting.
The area has diffuse been known to locals and BLM officials as a dinosaur haven. But no one knew of the site’s bulk until excavation began.
The bones were found in a sandstone passage of an ancient river.
“The preservation of these dinosaurs is virtuous,” Foss said.
The mix of dinosaurs, trees and other species in the territory may help scientists piece together what life was like 145 million years to 150 million years ago, including details about the ancient climate, Foss said.
BLM plans to close the site to conduct an environmental assessment as antidote to continued work in the area. The agency isn’t disclosing the exact location of the find because of security concerns.
From: Utah announces ‘major dinosaur fossil detection’ (AP)
