When you purchase through links on our site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
Lake Powell ’s vacillate shoreline has revealed " super rare " fossils belonging to a long - nonextant mammal relative that roamed North America 180 million year ago , National Park Service ( NPS ) functionary announced last calendar week .
Researchers discovered the bones earlier this yr in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area ( NRA ) in southern Utah while documenting fossilized course . The site is usually submerged and was only accessible for a poor period of fourth dimension before snowmelt in the summertime month replenished the lake .
A painting depicting an Early Jurassic scene from the Navajo Sandstone desert preserved at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Paleontologists worked with artist Brian Engh to provide a technically accurate depiction of the rare and enigmatic tritylodonts.
The bones are the first tritylodontid fossils found in the Navajo Sandstone , a geologic formation of thick stratum of sandstone that wereformed in a vast ancient desert of sand dunesin what is now know as the Glen Canyon Group .
Tritylodontids are a mathematical group of dear - mammal reptilian that lived during theTriassic(251.9 million to 201.3 million twelvemonth ago ) andJurassic(201.3 million to 145 million age ago ) periods . These warm - blooded , herbivorous wight belike co - existed with early mammalian for millions of years and outlast amass extinction eventat the oddment of the Triassic . dissimilar species of tritylodontids order in sizefrom strikebreaker - sized to beast - sized .
Related:‘Truly mammoth ' Jurassic sea monster remains discovered by fortune in museum
Paleontologists discovered the rare, 180 million-year-old fossils in a spot usually submerged by the waters of Lake Powell.
" These extremely uncommon fossils are one of the most important fossil vertebrate discovery in the United States this year , " NPS officials said in astatement .
The paleontologists who plant the bones were " in the right spot at the right sentence , " the statement pronounce . They only had 120 days to recuperate the dodo before water spirit level once again increased . They collect hundreds of pound of rock that encased bones and skeletons , which will be scanned and analyzed before get together the assembling of the Prehistoric Museum in Price , Utah .
— ' take flight lamia ' obsess Jurassic ocean with shine - in - the - dark organ , fossil reveals
— Mysterious ' golden ' fossils from the Jurassic are n’t what they seem
— ' Never seen anything like it ' : Impeccably preserved Jurassic fish fossils rule on UK farm
" study these fossils will aid paleontologist learn more about how early mammal relative survived the aggregate extinction at the end of the Triassic Period and diversify through the Jurassic Period , " the statement enunciate .
According to the statement , paleontologists also identify a rarefied bone seam in the somewhat previous Kayenta Formation , which ride about 60 international nautical mile ( 100 kilometer ) southeast of the Glen Canyon NRA , but no further contingent were given about this find .
In July , dropping H2O levels in Texas ' Paluxy River expose 70 dinosaur tracks , includingone of the longest dinosaur tracks in the world , at Dinosaur Valley State Park .
