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Thread: Major dinosaur fossil find in southern Utah

  1. #1

    Major dinosaur fossil find in southern Utah

    Major dinosaur fossil find in southern Utah
    By Brian Maffly
    The Salt Lake Tribune


    A team of Illinois scientists looking for fossils of big dinosaurs in Utah's Morrison limestone struck pay dirt last month, opening the possibility of a major dinosaur quarry outside Hanksville.

    In recent weeks, the group, representing the Burpee Museum of Natural History, uncovered "a logjam" of 148-million-year remains of as many as six dinosaur species and massive coniferous trees so well preserved you can feel their bark and read their tree rings.

    And that's just scratching the surface, said paleontologist Matt Bonnan, an associate professor of biological sciences at Western Illinois University. Scientists are confident the find could rival Utah's famous Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry and Dinosaur National Monument in terms of expanding our biological understanding of the late Jurassic period.

    "What's exciting is that it's the first time in a long time where we have logjams of bones of a different species in one place," said Bonnan. The Burpee tapped Bonnan for the Hanksville digs because of his expertise in sauropods, the dinosaur family whose members were the largest animals to ever walk on land. The museum, in the Chicago suburb of Rockford, is building a new exhibition hall and its Utah expeditions are intended to find specimens to fill it, according to Utah state paleontologist Jim Kirkland.

    "We're thrilled to have someone working this site," Kirkland said. "Now that there is a serious long-term research effort, it has the potential to be an economic asset to Hanksville."

    The area has been known as a source of fossils to locals and land managers for years, but it was only in the last few weeks that its potential impact to science became known, said Bureau of Land Management paleontologist Scott Foss. A geologist in the BLM's Hanksville office directed the Illinois team to the spot last summer when the Burpee group arrived looking for bones.

    Souvenir hunters and rockhounds have picked over the spot, but the damage never extended beneath the surface. BLM plans to close the area to public access to protect the fossil resource and perform an environmental review.

    The Morrison formation is the most fertile ground for dinosaur prospecting in North America, yielding some of the best specimens of brand-name dinosaurs, including Utah's signature fossil, allosaurus. Accordingly, the Burpee group is discovering specimens already familiar to science and school children: allosaurus, stegosaurus, apatosaurus, camarasaurus, brachiosaurus, and diplodocus. The last four are sauropods, massive planteaters that grew to 60 to 90 feet in length and are easily recognized by their long necks and tiny heads. The best brachiosaurus specimens have been recovered in Africa, so the Hanksville dig could present a rare opportunity to compare how the same dinosaur evolved on different continents, Bonnan said.

    These species, which lived in the late Jurassic period, are among the most well-studied dinosaurs, unlike the younger Cretaceous-period specimens the University of Utah is recovering from nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. While Utah scientists are preoccupied with identifying previously unknown dinosaur species, the Illinois team is interested in deepening our understanding of well-known species and the world they inhabited.

    "We will be able to take a look at old bones with new eyes and new techniques," Bonnan said. "In the old days they looked for the best specimens for display. What we tend to be interested in nowadays when you have a log jam is what it can tell you about the flow of the river system and about the ancient environment."

    Last month, scientists found countless bones strung along a half-mile area believed to have been a sand bar where an ancient river deposited dismembered dinosaurs and trees. Some of the bones are articulated, but most are scattered and it could take years to excavate and assemble complete specimens.

    The field has been known to locals and land managers as a source of fossils, but its potential impact to science only became known in the past few weeks, said Bureau of Land Management paleontologist Scott Foss. A geologist in the BLM's Hanksville office directed the Illinois team to the spot last summer when the Burpee group arrived looking for bones.

    The area has been picked over by souvenir hunters and rockhounds, but the damage never extended beneath the surface. BLM plans to close the newly designated Hanksville-Burpee Quarry to public access to protect the fossil resource and perform an environmental review.


    Cleveland-Lloyd, excavated near Price in the 1930s, tapped the same 145-to-150-million-year-old rock as the Burpee team, but in those days scientists often missed biological and ecological clues. The Hanksville-Burpee site is giving science an opportunity to learn new things about familiar dinosaurs, scientists say.

    "We will be able to take a look at old bones with new eyes and new techniques," Bonnan said.

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  3. #2
    Carbon Footprint Donor JP's Avatar
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    Neat find Can't wait to see some pice from that site

  4. #3
    Having spent some time in that area, it will be nice to learn more precisely where this find is located.
    Stan

    Check out my photo gallery at www.pbase.com/sparker1

  5. #4
    Bogley BigShot oldno7's Avatar
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    They need to leave those things alone and give them a chance to become oil.

    cool find

  6. #5
    I hope this doesn't become too big. Don't get me wrong it is cool, but I would like the Swell to remain a hidden jewel, so I don't want too much activity around Hanksville.
    "My heart shall cry out for Moab..." Isaiah 15:5

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by DiscGo
    I hope this doesn't become too big. Don't get me wrong it is cool, but I would like the Swell to remain a hidden jewel, so I don't want too much activity around Hanksville.
    Not to worry. The bustling metropolis of Cleveland, Utah (and outlying Elmo) have yet to see any impact from the nearby dinosaur finds other than a few extra vehicles per day passing through without stopping.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by oldno7
    They need to leave those things alone and give them a chance to become oil.

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Udink
    The bustling metropolis of Cleveland, Utah (and outlying Elmo)
    "My heart shall cry out for Moab..." Isaiah 15:5

  10. #9
    dinosaurs, no matter how long they are buried, will never make oil...

  11. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by jinx
    dinosaurs, no matter how long they are buried, will never make oil...
    Just wait, until someone figures out the science behind Jurassic Park, I imaginge those dinosaurs will produce some kind of oil.
    "You Sombitch's couldn't close an umbrella"
    Sheriff Beuford T Justice

  12. #11
    well if we all had an "imaginge"-ation like you, we would all be paying one dollar per gallon at the pumps right now. Being a recent college graduate in the field of geo-sciences who has passed petroleum geology with an A, let me let you in on a couple of facts. when drill core samples of producing wells are logged and described they do not find terrestrial fossils. if any fossils are found, they are aquatic in nature. no, not aquatic dinosaurs either, conodonts <--google 'em. next fact, when dinosaurs are found (anywhere near Vernal or Cleveland for example), the "oil" that is being pumped by wells nearby, is being pumped from much deeper strata than that which contains the fossils.

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