Editor s note: This article is a part of a series reviewing Utah and U.S. history for KSL.com s Historic section.
SALT LAKE CITY Scientists believe they have many more Utahraptor fossils than they originally believed from a 136 million-year-old sandstone megablock that was first discovered in Utah two decades ago.
The new research also indicates that the raptors found in Grand County are the oldest in the world, officials from the Utah Geological Survey said Thursday. The block was originally believed to be 125 million years old, according to the agency s website.
It was preliminarily believed that a 9-ton megablock, which was originally found at Arches National Park in 2001, contained the bones of at least one Utahraptor, 10 juveniles and three babies. But after further research over the past year, they now believe they will find more than double the amount of dinosaur remains.
Volcano mouse once thought extinct is actually doing great, research finds
Scientists had presumed the species was wiped off the face of the Earth after a 1991 volcanic eruption destroyed its only habitat on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
Social Sharing
CBC Radio ·
Posted: Jan 30, 2021 1:41 PM ET | Last Updated: January 30
This species of mouse was thought to be extinct after the Mount Pinatubo volcano erupted in 1991. But a new study has found it is, in fact, thriving.(Field Museum )
| Updated: 4:13 p.m.
A bill that would require Utah victims to provide more evidence that they’re being stalked before they can get a protective order has been passed by a committee despite pleas against it from victim advocates and attorneys.
Stalking victim Megan Mullineaux said she already hasn’t been able to get help under the state’s current statute, after a former partner has shown up at her house, her workplace and even when she was at a remote camping site. She said the proposed change will only make the process harder for those who need protection.
“It’s been extremely taxing and extremely difficult to prove, as it is now,” she said.
Rediscovery of the “extinct” Pinatubo volcano mouse
A small mouse rediscovered on a volcano that erupted 30 years ago provides hope for wildlife conservation in the Philippines.
In June 1991, Mount Pinatubo, a volcanic peak on the Philippine Island of Luzon, literally blew its top. It was the second-most powerful volcanic eruption of the 20th century, ten times stronger than Mount Saint Helens, and its effects were devastating. Lava and ash spewed into the surrounding environment in the Zambales Mountains, pooling in layers up to 600 feet thick in the valleys. Following the eruption, powerful typhoons and monsoon rains triggered landslides and ash flows that continued for many months. Eight hundred people lost their lives, and the lush forests that covered the mountain prior to the eruption were destroyed or severely damaged. In recent years, scientists returned to the region to survey the surviving mammal populations, and in a new paper in the Philippine Journal of Science,
(photo from Danilo Balete/Field Museum of Natural History)
The findings of the study led by researchers Eric Rickart, Lawrence Heaney, and Danilo Balete of the Natural History Museum of Utah and Field Museum of Natural History Chicago were recently published in the Philippine Journal of Science.
The researchers noted that the information on the mammal fauna of Mt. Pinatubo prior to the 1991 eruption is limited but documents a variety of native mammals.
“In 2011 and 2012, we surveyed mammals at localities along an elevational gradient on the eastern slope of the mountain where vegetation had been devastated by pyroclastic flows and subsequent lahars, and habitat reflected early stages of plant succession,” the experts said.