Utah dinosaur discovery may offer prehistoric insights

Tue., June 17, 2008

Mike Stark Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY – A newly discovered batch of well-preserved dinosaur bones, petrified trees and freshwater clams in southeastern Utah may provide new clues about life in the region some 150 million years ago.

The Bureau of Land Management announced the find Monday, calling the quarry near Hanksville “a major dinosaur fossil discovery.”

Several weeks of excavation have revealed at least four long-necked sauropods, two carnivorous dinosaurs and possibly a stegosaurus, according to the BLM. Nearby, there are animal burrows and petrified tree trunks six feet in diameter. It doesn’t contain any new species – at least not yet – but offers 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 of those at Dinosaur National Monument and the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry near Price.

It could be a decade or so before the full importance of the Hanksville quarry is known, Foss said.

“It does have the potential to match the other major quarries in Utah,” Foss said. “Or it may not.”

The site was excavated by 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 excavation.

The dinosaur bones were found in a sandstone channel of an ancient river.

“The preservation of these dinosaurs is excellent,” Foss said.

The Hanksville-Burpee site is roughly 50 yards wide by 200 yards long.

The mix of dinosaurs, trees and other species in the area may help scientists piece together what life was like 145 million to 150 million years ago, including details about the ancient climate, Foss said.

The BLM isn’t disclosing the exact location out of concern for its security.

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