Treasure trove of late Triassic fossils discovered in Utah

Paleontologists have discovered a cliff-side in Utah brimming with fossils that offers a rare glimpse of desert life in western North America early in the age of dinosaurs. Among the discoveries in what used to be a lake shoreline between giant sand dunes is a new pterosaur that would have been the largest flying reptile of the time. It wielded its ferocious teeth and powerful skull to gobble up small crocodile type creatures as it soared over a desert some 210 million years ago. The pterosaur discovery is significant because it fills a gap in the fossil record between earlier, smaller pterosaurs and the giant ones that came later, said Brian Andres, a University of South Florida paleontologist.

If you saw one of these things coming at you with its jaws open, it would freak you out of your mind.

Brooks Britt, a Brigham Young University paleontologist

Eight different animals, most likely new, have been identified at a site discovered in 2009 near Dinosaur National Monument on the Utah-Colorado border. The discoveries include: A type of a strange-looking reptile with a head like a bird, arms like a mole and a claw on the tip of the tail called a drepanosaur; Several small crocodile-like creatures with armor on their backs called sphenosuchians; Two different types of meat-eating dinosaurs, one related to the coelophysis, a scrawny dinosaur featured in the recent movie, “Walking with Dinosaurs”.

It is absurdly rare to find delicate, small skeletons from anywhere in time, anywhere in the world.

Adam Pritchard, a Yale paleontologist

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