The latest report from Utah shows that a dinosaur trackway had been damaged by a backhoe. The incident occurred during a government-funded operation to remove a wooden walkboard.
The boardwalk was intentionally placed on the area to keep the prehistoric footprints from unnecessary damage. The incident was denied by the US Bureau of Land Management, which said that their backhoe was not responsible for the severity of damage inflicted to the monument.
Fossilized Footprints Damaged in Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite
Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite was the preservation area where the accident took place. The site is located 30 kilometers north of Moab. According to the witnesses, the large vehicle left prints over the soil where the dinosaur tracks are imprinted. The markings tarnished the tread patterns, which date back to 112 million years old.
Utah's backhoe incident immediately sparked conversations on social media. Images of the obvious dinosaur track vandalism were also published online.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management Moab field office said in a report by The Salt Lake Tribune that they were conducting an operation to replace the boardwalk across the site.
The repair was pushed through a public BLM proposal presented in October 2021. The main issue with the boardwalk is that it has already become a trip hazard for visitors to the site. Since then, there has been no clear response from the bureau regarding the matter until January 2022.
The BLM proposal included several requests, including constructing a new boardwalk made from metal and concrete. The main goal of the proposal was to provide a safer environment for the visitors to the park.
Bureau of Land Management Moab: No Damage from Backhoe
According to Live Science, witnesses explained that upon retrieving the old boardwalk, the operators compiled the woods right beside the dinosaur tracks.
Utah state's paleontology expert Jim Kirkland said in a report by Science that upon visiting the trackway last January 30, he saw that the damaged area appeared to be confined in a protected perimeter. The expert said that the incident did not involve any expertise from paleontologists. Because of the outcome of the project and the lack of communication, Kirkland dubbed the event as a 'bureaucratic screw-up.'
The BLM Moab authorities halted the ongoing construction project. However, they still deny the allegation towards the backhoe, saying that the machine did not cause any damage. Even though they admit that a backhoe was present when the million-year-old tracks were damaged, the bureau said it was not used in the protected area.
The Mill Canyon dinosaur tracks were first unearthed in 2009. Through a series of development, the site was opened for public viewing in 2013. The site offers a presentation of over 200 fossilized footprints marked by approximately ten dinosaur species during the Cretaceous period.
The Utah tracksite kept remains of track from dinosaurs such as the iguanodons, sauropods, stegosaurus, and allosaurus. The site also contributed to multiple studies on the unique behaviors of prehistoric animals.
The dinosaur tracks on the site are extremely fragile, which allowed the recent damage to affect at least 30 percent of the fossil collection. Due to the outrage, BLM will halt the progress in Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite until investigations end.
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