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Utah Travel Headlines

Monday, December 03, 2007

Thousands of Dinosaur Tracks Found Near Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Tracks from dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures have been found in a football field-sized area about five miles SW of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.

This Salt Lake Tribune article describes the find. Here are excerpts:

About 190 million years ago, a sharp-toothed and clawed carnivorous dinosaur about the size of a robin left a lasting impression on southern Utah.
And those fossilized footprints - along with stone tracks of five other dino species, including three-toed crocodiles and a 35-foot-long, four-toed plant-munching prosauropod - have been discovered in a popular off-road-riding area of Kane County.

"Everyone agrees the site should be preserved," said Crutchfield, noting tire marks have scarred some tracks.

Officials plan to fence the site and add interpretive displays.

One of the site's most tantalizing features is a series of about 100 layers that allow the geologic record to be read like pages in a book.

"It is like a window we can look through at a time 190 million years ago, see its ecosystem," said Martin Lockley, who heads the Dinosaur Tracks Museum at the University of Colorado at Denver.

Read the complete article.

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