Paleontologists recover Brachiosaurus remains in southern Utah
By Devan Chavez
A team of paleontologists have recovered a 6-foot 7-inch humerus belonging to the rare 30-ton dinosaur Brachiosaurus in the desert of southern Utah. The humerus will make its first public appearance at an unveiling in the lobby of the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum (496 East Main St., Vernal) Jan. 30 at 11 a.m. There will also be a documentary film screening at 6 p.m. of Jurassic Reimagined which features this specific Brachiosaurus bone.
The team included paleontologists from the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal, Utah, and the Western University of Health Sciences, in Pomona, California.
The giraffe-like Brachiosaurus is distinguished by its long front legs, deep chest, and long neck. The recovered bone, the humerus, is the upper leg bone for this towering creature. This is only the third Brachiosaurus humerus ever found and the first in Utah.
The bone and its surrounding rock, enclosing plaster, and burlap “field jacket” weighed more than 1000 lbs. and was removed with the assistance of two Clydesdale horses. The site was found in May 2019 by paleoartist Brian Engh and was removed in October after permits were cleared and after securing the assistance of a horse team.
Brachiosaurus are a particularly rare dinosaur in the Late Jurassic-age Morrison Formation of the western United States, outnumbered by specimens of other species of dinosaurs by up to 20-to-1.
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