Mill Canyon, Utah: Outrage as construction crew wipes out prehistoric dinosaur tracks at tourist site

Dinosaur tracks from 112 million years ago have been damaged beyond repair by construction workers building a new tourist boardwalk in south-eastern Utah.

In Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite, where at least 10 species of dinosaur are known to have left more than 200 individual tracks dating back to the early cretaceous period, carefully preserved prehistoric crocodile tracks appeared to have been driven over multiple times by a digger. Construction workers in the Moab desert had been rebuilding a boardwalk at the site.

Now, the US Bureau of Land Management has said the project should be reevaluated and work crews briefed on where they can and cannot go.

The department said: "Construction crews impacted track-bearing surfaces with vehicles during the removal of boardwalk pallets on to the trailer. As a result, trace fossils were damaged."

The fossils were located in an area designated as "cleared for traffic" in the development plans, surveyors said.

Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the centre for biological diversity, said: "I'm absolutely outraged. This careless disregard for these irreplaceable traces of the past is appalling. It really calls into question the bureau's competence as a land-management agency."

The bureau said: "To ensure this does not happen again, we will follow the recommendations in the assessment, seek public input, and work with the palaeontology community."

The Telegraph, London