A cache of what is believed to be one of the world’s richest collections of Triassic-era fossils has been discovered on national land in Utah where Donald Trump recently eliminated protections to open up the wilderness area to mining.
Researchers, led by paleontologist Rob Gay of the Colorado Canyons Association, unearthed intact remains of phytosaurs — ancient crocodile-like animals — in federal land in what was formerly part of the Bears Ears National Monument.
The discovery, announced Thursday, was revealed at the Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists annual conference in St. George, Utah, where researchers also sounded the alarm about the protections gutted by the Trump administration.
Trump reduced the 1.35 million-acre national monument by 85 percent in December. The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, also in Utah, was cut by some 800,000 acres. This month, the president opened up the land to new drilling and mining claims.
Based on a small initial excavation, the 69-yard site may be the “densest area of Triassic-period fossils in the nation, maybe the world,” Gay said in a statement. “It is extremely rare to find intact fossil skulls of specimens from this period.”
