TINY BRAINS

Dinosaur Footprints in Moab, Utah, Damaged by Contractors Building Platform to View Them

Several footprints damaged beyond repair by backhoe and foot traffic.

Some of the world’s most famous dinosaur footprints have been damaged beyond repair by the machinery of contractors who were building a boardwalk from which to view them. The damage was done in January when works were underway to replace the existing boardwalk at Mill Canyon dinosaur track site near Moab, Utah, where there are some 200 tracks left by at least ten species of dinosaur. A backhoe was repeatedly driven over one of the footprints when the old boardwalk was being removed, according to a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) report. Several other footprints now have fractured rims as a result of foot traffic and construction equipment, however the damage would have been much worse had local people not spotted what was happening, resulting in the project being immediately stopped.