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Paleontologists Search Excavated Retail Site For Fossilized Plant Remains

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 14:35 CDT

Paleontologists in the U.S. are in search of the fossilized remains of ancient plants at an excavated site near the Virgin River in Utah.

"Every plant they've identified has been new," said Utah's state paleontologist Jim Kirkland.

Researchers hope to fill in the blanks about life during a transitional period between the mass extinction of the Late Triassic period and the rise of dinosaurs as a dominant species.

"We're really excited and we've got institutions from all over the country interested in material from here," Kirkland said on Tuesday.

Excavation began last week at the privately owned site in order to clear the way for the development of an office complex with restaurants, shops and office space. The site is not far from the city's Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, where dinosaur tracks were found eight years ago.

Andrew Milner, the city's paleontologist, said the property's developers have agreed to excavate the privately owned land slowly so crews have time to pick through the dirt in search of hidden fossils.

"We've collected about 150 specimens in the last few days," Milner said.

Researchers discovered the first plant remains in the region in 2002, when a site was excavated for retail purposes. A 2006 study identified them as conifers, ferns and horsetails, which are slender hollow-stemmed plants.

Many of the fossils include seeds and some hardened branches with cones still attached.

"We really hit the jackpot in finding this plant site," Milner said.

Researchers hoping to find new insights into what happened there after cataclysmic extinctions that wiped out scores of plants, reptiles, insects and amphibians, are optimistic about the site.

Species that returned in the early Jurassic had to eat something, and plants were likely part of that diet, Kirkland said, adding that they still have a lot to learn. It's still unclear how the plants being excavated in St. George fit into that puzzle.

"You've got to really look hard to spot these things," Milner said.

Two plant slabs will be preserved and presented at the Dinosaur Discovery Site, he said.

Specimens have been requested by researchers elsewhere, including those at the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, the Smithsonian and the Museum of Natural History in New York.

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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