More than two months after paleontologists claimed a dinosaur fossil site in Utah wasseriously damagedby a backhoe , the Bureau of Land Management — which had ordered the construction work — has admitted that fossil trackways were indeed damage by the threatening machinery and that the department made error in not consulting scientists before dismantling a boardwalk there . But some say the BLM still has n’t done enough to check this and other dodo sites will be adequately protected .
“ I do n’t wish to be uncharitable to anybody , but if I were to describe the reputation in one word , I ’d say : bland . And very generalized , ” said Martin Lockley , one of the world ’s top ichnologists who has studied the fossils at Mill Canyon .
Mill Canyon Track Site , discovered in 2009 and opened to the populace in 2016 , is the theme of ongoing enquiry and feature footprint of long - make out sauropods , ankylosaurs , and carnivorous theropods , as well as crocodilian slide traces and other preserved remnants of the early Cretaceous . A wooden boardwalk edged the gravid open fossil site , enabling visitors to view these tincture fossils without walking on them . It was this boardwalk that BLM officials had decided to dismantle and put back with a more substantial structure — but few citizenry knew of this program before a backhoe arrived in late January , and experts who speak to Gizmodo said that lumbering vehicle should never have been permitted on the site .
Fossilized tracks at Mill Canyon.Photo: Bureau of Land Management
The tyre tracks are on the sauropod tracks . There is an iguanadon track there , too . They ’re literally driving on these.pic.twitter.com/9hLHK2v5LY
— Jeremy Roberts ( @JeremyBRoberts)January 30 , 2022
“ If I see that somebody has put a human photographic print in the mud off the boardwalk , I get frenetic , ” Sue Sternberg , a Mill Canyon Track Site unpaid worker steward , told Gizmodo in early February . “ So just the idea of this big machinery get over the track region is so horrifying for those of us who experience how fragile everything is there . ”
Tracks at Mill Canyon near the now-dismantled boardwalk.Photo:Bureau of Land Management
At the prison term , the BLM claimed that the backhoe was “ utterly not used in the protect area . ” But amidpublic call , officials said they would solve with paleontologist to retrospect the internet site before construction resumed . On March 30 , thepaleontological assessment , author by BLM regional fossilist Brent H. Breithaupt , was unloose . It finds that an unspecified number of tracks were fractured by vehicles . Damage could have been avoided , Breithaupt wrote , had a palaeontologist intimate with the land site been present or had they been ask to flag sensitive areas in advance of time .
Breithaupt concludes that , although a few instances of equipment casualty were due to instinctive causes ( weather condition and wearing away ) , fogy damage have place as a issue of the construction in January . For example , fossils were damage by vehicles when they drove over “ racecourse - bearing surfaces ” as they dismantled and stacked portions of the boardwalk .
“ Proximate to and along the northeastern side of the boardwalk an important crocodile playground slide track … is partially eat up by deposit , ” he write in the assessment . “ Unfortunately , this trace was repeatedly repulse over , as recent tire track betoken that this area was impacted by the backhoe and other fomite . ”
Artist’s conception of how the Mill Canyon site may have looked in the early Cretaceous Period.Illustration: Brian Engh
Breithaupt ’s assessment claims that the overall harm is minor but encourages meaning changes to any building be active forward , including greater palaeontological input and oversight before , during , and after any construction , along with better communication with the work crew . Breithaupt also recommended filling any opened positions for BLM paleontologists .
Lee Shenton , chairman of the local chapter in Moab of the Utah Friends of Paleontology ( UFOP ) , wrote in an email : “ For Dr. Breithaupt , us UFOPers , and seemingly many professional paleontologists , the root cause of the terms was the bankruptcy to regard a professional palaeontologist with direct knowledge of the site , resulting in inadequate identification of the areas that were most at risk . ”
Gizmodo ask Serena Baker , play communications director at the BLM Utah , whether the federal agency has any immediate plans to take a fossilist . She answer : “ The BLM is commit to hiring a paleontologist to be based in the Moab Field Office . The hiring process takes time and fiscal resources , but we are attached to filling the position , as soon as possible . We are cultivate with a BLM Paleontologist who will come to Moab to conduct additional surveys , review the environmental assessment and offer on - site monitoring . ”
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Shenton said that “ a couple of people are already discounting Dr. Breithaupt ’s write up , probably because he is a BLM employee … so they perhaps view his report as biased . My scene is that his report was frank and professional , give fourteen Page of elaborate assessment of the mistakes that were made and how to avoid repeats . clearly , his assessment is somewhat uncomfortable for those who were guide the project . ”
Lockley utter concerns about the fact that the BLM dominion palaeontologist position — which would manage Mill Canyon — cover to stay open . “ If it was necessary before [ to have a paleontologist ] , especially in an area like Moab where there ’s Brobdingnagian , immense amount of palaeontological resources , why is it no longer necessary now ? ” he say .
Jeanne Timmons ( @mostlymammoths ) is a freelance writer based in New Hampshire who blogs about paleontology and archeology atmostlymammoths.wordpress.com .
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