"The site is outstanding for the quality of the tracks, diversity of animals represented and continuum of time they were created," said Alan Titus, paleontologist for the Bureau of Land Management who led two tours of interested people to the location under clear blue skies.
Located in Kane County about 3 miles west of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, the site was documented last October in a popular riding area for all-terrain vehicles.
The area has since been closed to riders to preserve the site, named the Northern Moccasin Mountain Track Site.
The area, about the size of a football field, is covered with perhaps thousands of prehistoric footprints from the Jurassic period, when the region was covered with the largest sand desert the world has known, Titus said.
At first, it was hard for many to distinguish the faint prints from erosion marks made in the soft stone, but after some lessons from Titus on what to look for, it became easier to identify the impressions.
"This is a marvelous feature of this region," said Kanab resident Rick Csenge.
Jerry Harris, a paleontologist at Dixie State College in St. George, who took advantage of the tour, said southern Utah is full of dinosaur track sites.
"They are being discovered all the time and the new information is always important," said Harris. "Tours like this can teach people what to look for and help conserve them."
The documentation of the site is the latest inclusion on a long list of discoveries in the area including new species on the nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, also administered by the BLM.
In October, Martin Lockley, a world-renowned expert on dinosaur tracks visited the area and was impressed with the tracks and diversity of creatures.
He said it was like looking back in time through a window to nearly 200 million years ago.
Vicki Evans, one of about 12 members of the St. George-based volunteer organization Utah Friends of Paleontology who took the tour Saturday, described it as "fabulous."
"It's enjoyable to learn how the botany and geology mingle at a site like this," she said. "I'm still a novice and have a lot to learn."
Titus said the tracks left in the small wash of Navajo sandstone were created when the region was near the equator and covered with sand like the Sahara Desert.
He said windstorms would scour away sand to reveal hidden water surfaces or occasional rainstorms would create ponds where vegetation would thrive and attract the big beasts to feed, leaving their foot prints in mud.
"It would be like animals congregating at watering holes in Africa today," Titus said.
At the site, there are six kinds of tracks that belonged to creatures with two to five toes.
He said both vegetarian and carnivore dinosaurs trampled around the area for many generations, including an unknown species believed to have been a meat-eating dinosaur the size of a robin.
Other species suggested by the footprints include Dilophosaurus, Prosauropods and crocodile-type reptiles like Protosuchus.
"We can't relate print to bone and be 100 percent sure, because we usually don't find [skeletons] with tracks," Titus said.
Since the announcement of the site, it has been closed to motorized vehicles by a fence, although hikers can visit the site.
Robert Lackner, with the St. George volunteer group, said there probably are many tracks around the site yet to be discovered.
"We hope to help explore, map and photograph the site," he said.
Stan Ostapuck, from Green Haven, Ariz., was also excited about the tracks.
"The site is interesting," he said. "It's fantastic to have a resource like this here and that the BLM recognizes it and is willing to preserve it."
mhavnes@sltrib.com
