Getting plastered in San Juan County

U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) interns Jessica Uglesich, left, and Allison Stegner plastered a block of rock and bone at the Dystrophaeus Project site in San Juan County on Friday, Sept. 9.

Crews worked from Saturday, Sept. 3, through Saturday, Sept. 10, at the first documented dinosaur find in Utah, removing 16 blocks of rock and bone that weighed 3,000 pounds, according to Museum of Moab Director John Foster.

The latest excavation work, which is now funded by National Geographic, builds on work that Foster and others began in August 2014, 155 years after Dr. John Strong Newberry found the earliest-known sauropod dinosaur fossil in North America at the site.

The project is a joint effort between the Museum of Moab, the BLM and the University of Utah.