deseretnews.com
Weighing in at more than 2 tons and two dozen feet long, a new species of dinosaur related to Tyrannosaurus rex was fierce enough to be dubbed “King of Gore.” The discovery of “Lythronax argestes” at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah was announced Wednesday at the Natural History Museum of Utah and coincides with the publication of a study in PLoS ONE, an open access scientific journal.
sciencedaily.com
A remarkable new species of tyrannosaur has been unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM), southern Utah. The huge carnivore inhabited Laramidia, a landmass formed on the western coast of a shallow sea that flooded the central region of North America, isolating western and eastern portions of the continent for millions of years during the Late Cretaceous Period, between 95-70 million years ago. The newly discovered dinosaur, belonging to the same evolutionary branch as the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, was announced today in the open-access scientific journal PLOS ONE and unveiled on exhibit in the Past Worlds Gallery at the Natural History Museum of Utah at the Rio Tinto Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
usu.edu
Utah State University’s Department of Geology announces the opening of a new museum on the school’s Logan campus, along with the return of the department’s popular ‘Rock and Fossil Day,’ Saturday, Nov. 9, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
All ages are invited to the free event, which features a variety of hands-on educational activities along with admission to museum exhibits.
deseretnews.com
Have a hankering to see a hoodoo? Do you find argillite alluring? Savor scallops, and not the seafood kind?
Those vastly unique geologic features showcased in landscapes across Utah are captured in the photography displayed by the 2014 Utah Geology Calendar, an annual tradition that reflects the work and expertise of geologists with the Utah Geological Survey.
Utahns can once again bring the natural wonders of the state to their walls and desks. The new calendar from the Utah Geological Survey goes on sale Monday.
Utah Geological Survey started publishing the calendar eight years ago.
standard.net
Kirsten Bahr spent much of her summer enduring near-freezing temperatures, visiting the site of an ancient sea, and squeezing through rock passages that twisted and plunged deep into the earth. All without leaving Cache County.
kcpw.org
You wouldn’t know it from experience, but the Wasatch Front is one of the most seismically at risk areas in Utah and in the Intermountain West. Scientists are looking at thousands of years of earthquake history to learn more about the hazard we face. Kim Schuske has this story.
Martharaptor greenriverensis, a puzzling dinosaur lacking a complete skeleton, has been named after its co-discoverer Martha Hayden. Hayden, a dedicated advocate of paleontology, has served for more than 20 years as the assistant to several Utah state paleontologists. She has also donated numerous volunteer hours in her paleontological endeavors, and works with the Utah Geological Survey (UGS).
The dinosaur’s remains were found in the roughly 125-million-year-old rock of the Cedar Mountain Formation southeast of Green River, Utah, and collected under permit from the Bureau of Land Management and placed into the collections of the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City.
Until now, Utah’s online geologic maps were difficult for the general public to find and view, lacking an online interface. With the advent of ArcGIS for Server, displaying Utah’s geologic maps in one online location is now possible: http://geology.utah.gov/apps/intgeomap/index.html
A mosaic of over 400 of Utah’s geologic maps is draped over the user’s choice of base map. Map scales range from 1:500,000 (less detail) to 1:24,000 (more detail). While zooming in with the application, maps of greater detail will begin showing up where they are available, answering the question, “What am I standing on?”. This application works on any web-browser and looks great on tablets. Utah’s expansive geologic formations are described in detail in the right pane of the application by clicking anywhere on the map. Users have the option to download GIS data (raster/vector), and each map’s corresponding report. Check back often as there will be additional maps added in the future. Feel free to provide feedback—we are looking for ways to improve the application.
Utah Geological Survey (UGS) paleontologists have uncovered three new dromaeosaur (“raptor”) dinosaurs near the base of Utah’s Cretaceous fossil record (130-120 million years ago) in eastern Utah on Bureau of Land Management lands near Arches National Park.
The paper describing these new dinosaurs — New dromaeosaurids (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Utah and the evolution of the dromaeosaurid tail — was published today in PLos One (Public Library of Science) as part of a collaboration between UGS paleontologists and Phil Senter, an expert on dromaeosaurs from Fayetteville University in North Carolina.
Dromaeosauridae is a diverse family of predatory (carnivorous) dinosaurs with a plethora of species that have been discovered within the last two decades and a few that were known previously. The three newly discovered species were found at two nearby dinosaur sites: Doelling’s Bowl Bone Bed and Andrew’s Site.
The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) is a division of the Utah Department of Natural Resources. Several specialized programs comprise the UGS: Data Management, Energy & Minerals, Geologic Hazards, Geologic Information & Outreach, Geologic Mapping, Groundwater & Wetlands, and Paleontology.
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