National Guard helps recover rare baby dinosaur fossil from remote Kane County dig site

KANE COUNTY — A team of Utah and Nevada National Guard aviators re­cently helped recover two remarkable dino­saur fossils from a re­mote excavation site in Kane County, includ­ing what researchers say is the first baby duck-billed dinosaur ever found in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

A Utah Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter carries a rock-encased juvenile duckbilled dinosaur fossil from a remote excavation site in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on June 13. Researchers say it is the first baby duck-billed dinosaur found in the monument. Photo by Staff Sgt. Alejandro Lucero/Utah National Guard.

The June mission brought together Na­tional Guard crews and paleontologists from the Natural History Museum of Utah and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Working in rugged terrain inacces­sible to heavy equip­ment, military helicop­ters airlifted massive rock-encased fossils that would have been extremely difficult to remove by ground.

Among the discov­eries was the nearly complete skeleton of a juvenile duck-billed dinosaur measuring just two to three feet long. Despite the di­nosaur’s small size, the protective rock jacket surrounding the fossil weighed more than 1,100 pounds. Researchers with the Natural History Mu­seum of Utah have been carefully excavat­ing the site since 2024.

The second lift in­volved the fossilized remains of an ostrich-like dinosaur known as an ornithomimid. Encased in roughly 4,000 pounds of rock, the specimen required a CH-47 Chinook he­licopter from the Ne­vada Army National Guard for transport. Scientists believe the fossil may represent a previously unknown species, although years of preparation and re­search will be needed before any new species can be formally identi­fied.

For the National Guard, the mission also served as valuable training. The same precision flying and sling-load techniques used to transport the fossils are employed during search-and-rescue operations, di­saster response and other missions in re­mote terrain.

The discovery un­derscores the scientific importance of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, where decades of re­search have uncovered dozens of previously unknown prehistoric species. Once prepared and studied, the fossils recovered during this mission will become part of museum col­lections held in the public trust, helping researchers continue to unravel the ancient history of southern Utah.