Researchers have discovered a huge cache of pre-dinosaur fossils located in an area that President Trump cut off from the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
The researchers found remains of crocodile-like animals called phytosaurs.
Paleontologist Rob Gay and other researchers announced the findings this week at the Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists conference at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah.
“Based on our small, initial excavation, we believe that this 63-meter site may be the densest area of Triassic period fossils in the nation, maybe the world,” Gay said. “If this site can be fully excavated, it is likely that we will find many other intact specimens, and quite possibly even new vertebrate species.”
Gay, a contractor at the Museums of Western Colorado, told the Washington Examiner that his project was funded by a $25,000 grant from a Bureau of Land Management program that supports research on national monuments. The researchers hope to continue to make more discoveries in the area.
But the Wilderness Society, an environmental group, warns that the BLM funding is now unavailable because Trump removed protections of the region in December when he shrunk Bears Ears by more than 1 million acres. When the site was part of Bears Ears, BLM-funded research was allowed.
“While a discovery of this magnitude certainly is a welcome surprise, protecting such resources was the very purpose of Bears Ears National Monument,” said Scott Miller, a senior regional director at the Wilderness Society. “That President Trump acted to revoke protections for these lands is outrageous. I hope the courts will act quickly to restore protections for Bears Ears National Monument before any more fossils are looted from the area and lost to science.”
Gay says he doesn’t have enough funding to buy needed supplies, pay researchers to do additional excavation work, or feed volunteers.
He said the site had been looted during the course of his research, and worries the area is vulnerable without national monument protection.
The 1906 Antiquities Act gives presidents unilateral authority to declare national monuments to protect archaeologically important areas.
The Trump administration and congressional Republicans argue that previous presidents abused their authority under the Antiquities Act, setting aside larger and larger swaths of public land, limiting development opportunities and stifling local control.
The Antiquities Act specifies that national monuments should cover “the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects.”
Former President Barack Obama created Bears Ears just before he left office, protecting 1.35 million acres in Utah’s poorest county.
It is an area in the southeastern part of the state that the tribes consider sacred and depend on for sustenance and cultural tradition. It has more than 100,000 Native American archeological and cultural sites, according to the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, which advocated for the monument.
Trump on Dec. 4 signed a proclamation cutting Bears Ears by more than 1.1 million acres, or 85 percent, and creating two smaller monuments instead.
Tribes and environmental groups have sued the Trump administration for the action, and the cases have not been resolved yet. The rollback of Bears Ears became official earlier this month.
