Tag Archive for: eastern Utah

Digging in the dirt does not sound like a glamorous job, but it caught the attention of the cable television network’s Discovery Channel.  The show, DIRTY JOBS recently went on a dinosaur dig with some paleontologists from the Utah Geological Survey (UGS).  The show is set to air on Tuesday, December 20.

According to the show’s website:  “DIRTY JOBS profiles the unsung American laborers who make their living in the most unthinkable — yet vital — ways. Our brave host and apprentice Mike Rowe introduces you to a hardworking group of men and women who overcome fear, danger and sometimes stench and overall ickiness to accomplish their daily tasks.”

State Paleontologist Jim Kirkland and UGS paleontologist Don DeBlieux traveled with the cast and crew of the show to an undisclosed location in eastern Utah for the one day shoot to look for and dig dinosaur bones out of the side of a steep hill.  “We picked that site because it is such a spectacular location, but it is a difficult location and one which requires lots of hard and strenuous work,” says DeBlieux.

In fact, the weather was very uncooperative as they were driving to the site.  “It rained for a couple of hours in the morning and we were afraid that we weren’t going to be able to film, and they only had one day to shoot.  But luckily, the skies cleared and it turned out to be a nice day.”  The show points out that you have to have patience, strength and a love of playing in the dirt in order to be a paleontologist.

“We are excited to see the show because we have only seen the trailers,” said DeBlieux.  “But based on the trailers, it should be pretty amusing!”

Some of the episode’s trailers can be seen at: http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/dirty-jobs-sneak-peek/

The Utah Geological Survey provides timely scientific information about Utah’s geologic environment, resources, and hazards.

deseretnews.com

Fossil remains of an athletic sauropod with a potentially mighty kick found in eastern Utah offer a rare bounty of clues into how four-legged herbivores thrived, according to a new study of the discovery.

The results, published this week in the British journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, show that an unusually large hip bone compared to other sauropods could mean that the Brontomerus Mcintoshi had powerful hind legs to kick away predators, such as raptors.

“This is a very exciting discovery, because a majority of sauropods were known to have lived during the Jurassic period, but these fossils show us that they lived well into the early Cretacious period,” said Mathew Wedel, an assistant professor of anatomy at the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif.

The fossils were excavated by American scientists in the mid-1990s.

READ MORE

*correction: Jim Kirkland is the state paleontologist for the Utah Geological Survey.

RELATED LINKS
sltrib.com

m-241-insertGEOLOGIC MAP OF THE WHITE HOUSE QUADRANGLE, GRAND COUNTY, UTAH
Hellmut H. Doelling and Paul Kuehne

The White House quadrangle is located northeast of Arches National Park in eastern Utah. Exposed strata range from Late Jurassic Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation to Late Cretaceous Mancos Shale. The quadrangle overlies the ancestral Paradox basin and is influenced by salt-related folds, including the Salt Valley anticline to the west and Cisco Dome to the east.

CD (2 pl., 1:24,000)

M-241………$14.95

GET IT HERE

m-240GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE SAGERS FLAT QUADRANGLES, GRAND COUNTY, UTAH
Hellmut H. Doelling and Paul Kuehne

The Sagers Flat quadrangle is located northeast of Arches National Park in eastern Utah. Exposed strata range from Early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation to Late Cretaceous Mancos Shale. The area overlies the ancestral Paradox basin and is influenced by salt-related folds, including the Salt Valley anticline to the west and Cisco Dome to the east.

CD (2 pl., 1:24,000)

M-240……….$14.95

GET IT HERE

m-239-insertGEOLOGIC MAP OF THE THOMPSON SPRINGS QUADRANGLES, GRAND COUNTY, UTAH
Hellmut H. Doelling and Paul Kuehne

The Thompson Springs quadrangle is located north of Arches National Park in eastern Utah. Exposed strata range from Early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation to Late Cretaceous Castlegate Sandstone. The quadrangle overlies the ancestral Paradox basin and is influenced by salt-related folds, including the Salt Valley anticline to the west and Cisco Dome to the east.

CD (2 pl., 1:24,000)

M-239……….$14.95

GET IT HERE