Network
For the off-road community, it’s a privilege to be able to take advantage of the best Mother Nature has to offer in places like Moab, Utah, the Rubicon Trail in the Sierra Nevada range of mountains in Central California, Johnson Valley in the Mojave Desert of Southern California, and other wild and sensitive places. Unfortunately, sometimes things happen in those areas, and an ideal off-road area is turned into a crime scene.
Image: BLM via The Salt Lake Tribune
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, such is the case in the Hell’s Revenge off-road area just east of Moab, as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) tries to find out who stole a fossilized dinosaur footprint that used to be part of the landscape. So we’re asking for your help in finding out who did it!
It is believed that the dinosaur footprint was stolen sometime between February 17th and 18th.
Kent Green of Moab Cowboy Country Offroad Adventures, who leads off-road trips in the area, took a group of people up to see the print on February 18th, only to find that the print had been taken. Green told the BLM that he had seen the print one day earlier on another trip he led when he reported the print missing.
Image: BLM via The Salt Lake Tribune
According to Canyon County paleontologist for the U.S. BLM, Rebecca Hunt-Foster, the dinosaur print is one of about 20 known to be in the Hell’s Revenge area. This particular track is believed to have been created about 190 million years ago and stretches a foot wide by two to three feet long.
Hunt-Foster estimates that the slab of stone containing the print could have weighed over 100 pounds.
Hunt-Foster considers the footprint to be priceless, so she’s asking the public to share any information they may know about the theft of the fossil.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of the Hell’s Revenge dinosaur footprint, you are asked to call the BLM at (435) 259-2100.
